UC-NRLF . 


LIBRARY 

\  OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 

GIFT    OF 

a.. ..  QHAS,  R.  GRE^L^AF* 

Class 


/ 


POSTHUMOUS  SERMONS. 


BY  THE 

EEV.  HENRY  BLUNT,  A.M., 

»« 
LATE  RECTOR  OF  STRE ATHAM ; 

KB  FORMERLY  FELLOW   OF  PEMBROKE   COLLEGE.  CAMBH1DOK 


THIRD   AMERICAN   EDITION. 


PHILADELPHIA  ! 

PUBLISHED    BY   H.    HOOKER, 

S.  W.  CORNER  CHESNUT  &  EIGHTH  STa 
1854. 


PREFACE. 


IT  is  in  compliance  with  the  wish  of  the  loved  and 
lamented  author  of  these  Sermons,  that  they  have  been  sub- 
mitted to  me  for  my  inspection ;  and  that  the  oversight  of 
them,  as  they  passed  through  the  press,  was  intrusted  to  my 
care.  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  say,  that,  with  the  exception 
of  one  or  two  trifling  verbal  alterations,  they  are  printed  just 
as  they  were  preached.  This  statement  is  made  at  the  desire 
of  his  family  and  friends ;  otherwise,  greatly  as  I  value  the 
privilege  of  being  associated  with  one  so  dear  to  myself,  and 
so  universally  esteemed,  I  should  have  refrained  from  the 
intrusion  of  my  name.  It  may  appear  superfluous,  and  even 
presumptuous  in  me,  to  add  any  observations  of  my  own  on 
the  character  of  these  Sermons ;  but  I  cannot  resist  saying, 
that  the  perusal  of  them  has  confirmed  the  opinion  formed 
from  his  preceding  volume ;  namely,  that,  eminently  useful, 
and  singularly  attractive,  as  are  the  series  of  his  well-known 
Historical  Lectures,  and  his  practical  Commentary  on  the 

Pentateuch,  they  are  even  surpassed  by  his  Sermons.     The 

iii 

47  *  Q  o  1  Q 

^  JL  O  O  ~*.  O 


PREFACE.. 


value  of  these  had  been  so  long  and  so  fully  attested  by  the 
effect  of  his  ministry,  that  it  always  seemed  a  matter  of  regret 
that  a  larger  proportion  of  them  was  not  presented  to  the 
public  during  his  lifetime ;  though,  perhaps,  they  may  now 
come  to  many  invested  with  a  deeper  interest,  as  the  echo  of 
that  loved  voice,  whose  impressive  sounds  will  long  live  in 
their  remembrance.  In  all  the  sterling  and  more  important 
qualities  of  addresses  from  the  pulpit — in  the  full  exhibition 
of  the  whole  of  Divine  truth  in  its  various  bearings  and  pro- 
portions— in  the  intimate  connexion  maintained  between 
Christian  privilege  and  Christian  practice — in  the  unfolding 
of  the  secret  workings  -of  the  human  heart,  and  in  the  deep 
searching  of  the  conscience,  they  are  unrivalled ;  while  they 
are  equally  distinguished  for  the  rich  but  simple  eloquence, 
the  brilliant  but  chastened  imagination  which  pervades  them ; 
combined  with  a  plain  perspicuity  of  language  that  com- 
mends them  to  persons  of  all  ranks  and  of  all  ages.  I  would 
only  add,  that  the  Sermons  are  a  transcript  of  the  man — 
eminent  for  his  clear  and  accurate  discrimination,  his  sound 
and  solid  and  comprehensive  judgment — whose  life  exempli- 
fied the  sanctifying  influence  of  the  truths  which  he  enforced, 
while  his  death  sealed  the  sufficiency  of  those  promises 
which  he  delighted  to  proclaim.  Though  his  bodily  weak- 
ness was  great  to  the  utmost  limit  of  endurance,  his  mind 
remained  in  full  vigour  to  the  last,  and  his  faith  and  hope 
continued  bright  and  unclouded  even  to  the  end.  In  the  few 
last  days  he  frequently  repeated,  in  the  full  perception  of 
their  preciousness,  those  blessed  words,  "This  is  a  faithful 
saying,  and  worthy  of  all  acceptation,  that  Christ  Jesus  came 
into  the  world  to  save  sinners,  of  whom  I  am  chief."  And 
during  the  last  day  and  night  of  suffering,  this  was  his  testi- 


PREFACE.  v 

mony,  that  the  dependence  which  he  had  realized  in  life,  did 
not  fail  him  in  the  hour  of  death  :  "  Much  bodily  suffering, 
but  no  doubt,  and  perfect  peace;  and  I  know  I  shall  enjoy  it 
throughout  eternity  for  the  alone  merits  of  my  Saviour." 

JOHN  BROWNE, 

TRINITY  CHURCH,  CHELTENHAM. 
January  13,  1844. 


1» 


CONTENTS. 

SERMON  I. 

THE  MUTABILITY  OP  MAN,  THE  IMMUTABILITY  OF  GOD. 

ZECHARIAH  i.  5, 6.  Your  fathers,  where  are  they  ?  And  the  pro- 
phets, do  they  live  for  ever  ?  But  my  words  and  my  statutes 
which  I  commanded  my  servants  the  prophets,  did  they  not 
take  hold  of  your  fathers?  And  they  returned  and  said,  Like 
as  the  Lord  of  Hosts  thought  to  do  unto  us,  according  to  our 
ways,  and  according  to  our  doings,  so  hath  he  dealt  with  us. 

Page  11 

SERMON  II. 

CHRIST  THE  BELIEVER?S  REFUGE. 

ISAIAH  xxxii.  2.  A  man  shall  be  as  an  hiding-place  from  the 
wind,  and  a  covert  from  the  tempest ;  as  rivers  of  water  in  a 
dry  place,  as  the  shadow  of  a  great  rock  in  a  weary  land.  22 

SERMON  III. 

CHRIST  THE  FULNESS  OF   THE  BELIEVER. 

EPHESIANS  i.  22,  23.  The  Head  over  all  things  to  the  Church, 
which  is  his  body,  the  fulness  of  him  that  filleth  all  in  all.  33 

SERMON  IV. 

THE  ALMOST  CHRISTIAN. 

ACTS  xxvi.  28.    Almost  thou  persuadest  me  to  be  a  Christian. 

45 

(7) 


v]]j  CONTENTS. 

SERMON  V. 
THE  BELIEVER'S  ASSURED  INHERITANCE. 

1  PETER  I.  4, 5.    An  inheritance  incorruptible,  and  undefiled,  and 
that  fadeth  not  away,  reserved  in  heaven  for  you  who  are  kept 
by  the  power  of  God  through  faith  unto  salvation.  58 

SERMON  VT. 

THE  DEVICES  OF  SATAN. 

2  COR.  11.  11 .    We  are  not  ignorant  of  his  devices.  71 

SERMON  VII. 

THE  SAME  SUBJECT  CONTINUED.  84 

SERMON  VIII. 

THE  SAME  SUBJECT  CONCLUDED.  96 

SERMON  IX. 

THE  SOLEMN  SEARCH. 

ZEPHANIAH  i.  12.  And  it  shall  come  to  pass  at  that  time,  that  1 
will  search  Jerusalem  with  candles,  and  punish  the  men  that 
are  settled  on  their  lees  :  that  say  in  their  heart,  The  Lord  will 
not  do  good,  neither  will  he  do  evil.  ]  08 

SERMON  X. 

THE  LORD  OUR  RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

JEREMIAH  xxiii.  6.  This  is  his  name  by  which  he  shall  be  called, 
The  Lord  our  Righteousness.  121 


CONTENTS  jx 

SERMON  XL 

CONFESSING  CHRIST. 

MATTHEW  x.  32,  33.  Whosoever,  therefore,  shall  confess  me 
before  men,  him  will  I  confess  before  my  Father  which  is  in 
heaven.  But  whosoever  shall  deny  me  before  men,  him  will 
I  also  deny  before  my  Father  which  is  in  heaven.  131 

SERMON  XII. 

GO  FORWARD. 

EXODUS  xiv.  15.*  Speak  unto  the  children  of  Israel,  that  they  go 
forward.  144 

SERMON  XIII. 

SANCTIFIED  AFFLICTIONS. 

2  COR.  iv.  17,  18.  For  our  light  affliction,  which  is  but  for  a 
moment,  worketh  for  us  a  far  more  exceeding  and  eternal 
weight  of  glory ;  while  we  look  not  at  the  things  w^ich  are 
seen,  but  at  the  things  which  are  not  seen,  for  the  things 
which  are  seen  are  temporal,  but  the  things  which  are  not 
seen  are  eternal.  157 

SERMON  XIV. 

REDEEMING  THE  TIME. 

EPHESIANS  v.  16.  Redeeming  the  time,  because  the  days  are 
evil.  169 

SERMON  XV. 

THE  JUDGMENT. 

ACTS  xvii.  31.  He  hath  appointed  a  day,  in  the  which  he  will 
judge  the  world  in  righteousness,  by  that  man  whom  he  hath 
ordained ;  whereof  he  hath  given  assurance  unto  all  men,  in 
that  he  hath  raised  him  from  the  dead.  178 


SERMONS. 


SERMON  I. 

THE  MUTABILITY  OF  MAN,  THE  IMMU- 
TABILITY OF  GOD. 


ZECHARIAH  i.  5,  6. 

Your  fathers,  where  are  they  1  and  the  prophets,  do  they  live  for 
ever!  but  my  words  and  my  statutes,  which  I  commanded  my  ser- 
vants the  prophets,  did  they  not  take  hold  of  your  fathers  1  and 
they  returned  and  said,  like  as  the  Lord  of  hosts  thought  to  do 
unto  us,  according  to  our  ways,  and  according  to  our  doings,  so 
hath  he  dealt  with  us. 

THE  mutability  of  man,  and  the  immutability  of  God ! 
How  awful  a  subject,  how  solemnly  impressed  upon  us 
by  every  revolving  year,  yet  how  little  inclined  are  we 
to  dwell  upon  it,  how  much  indisposed  to  suffer  the  con- 
sideration of  it  to  interfere  with  any  of  our  plans  of 
worldly  enjoyment,  or  to  quicken  us,  as  it  ought  to  do, 
in  the  immediate,  the  earnest,  anxious  pursuit  of  spiritual 
good.  May  our  God,  even  Jehovah,  who  spake  these 
words  in  time  past  unto  his  people  by  the  prophets,  in  this 
latter  day  speak  them  unto  our  hearts  by  the  Spirit  of 
his  Son ;  that  if  they  have  never  yet,  in  the  language  of 
the  text,  u  taken  hold"  of  us,  they  may  this  day  so  take 
11 


|2  THE  MUTABILITY  OF  MAN, 

hold  of  our  attention,  of  our  memory,  and  of  our  hearts, 
as  to  sanctify  to  us  this  first  sabbath  of  the  opening 
year,  and  to  fix  upon  our  souls  the  warning,  the  precepts, 
the  promises  and  the  threatenings  of  our  God,  that  they 
may  not  merely  influence  us  for  a  passing  hour,  but 
abide  with  us  for  ever. 

We  shall  commence  by  stating  briefly  the  original  in- 
tention of  the  passage,  as  it  occurs  in  the  prophecy  from 
which  it  is  taken. 

The  Almighty  had  sent  his  prophet  Zechariah,  as  we 
find  by  the  beginning  of  the  chapter,  to  call  his  people  to 
repentance,  with  the  promise  that  their  repentance  should 
be  accepted.  To  urge  them  the  more  strongly  to  this, 
the  Lord  reminds  them  that  Jie  had  "  been  sore  dis- 
pleased with  their  fathers,3'  and  cautions  them  very 
expressly  not  to  imitate  their  obduracy  and  sin,  but  to 
turn  at  the  voice  of  the  Lord.  He  then  condescends 
to  reason  with  them  in  the  words  of  the  text,  upon 
the  obvious  wisdom  and  advantage  of  so  doing, 
grounding  this  appeal  upon  the  following  affecting 
considerations ;  that  their  fathers,  who  in  old  time  had 
been  warned,  as  they  were  now,  and  had  rejected  the 
warning,  had  been  cut  off  by  the  predicted  judgments 
which  they  despised,  and  were,  as  the  Psalmist  expresses 
it,  "  clean  gone  for  ever ;"  that  the  prophets  who  had 
carried  these  warnings,  and  urged  them  upon  the  atten- 
tion of  their  fathers,  could  no  longer  benefit  them,  for 
that  they  also  were  removed ;  that  the  teachers  and  the 
taught,  the  disciples  and  the  masters,  in  fact  the  whole 
generation,  had  been  swept  away ;  thus  reminding  them, 
in  a  very  convincing  manner,  of  the  mutability  of  man. 
The  Almighty  then  proceeds  to  remind  them  as  strikingly 
of  the  immutability  of  God.  He  says,  in  effect,  Did  the 
Almighty  change  because  your  fathers  would  not  hear 


THE  IMMUTABILITY  OF  GOD.  [3 

and  would  not  turn?  Did  God  alter  his  message  be  jiwse 
they  refused  to  receive  it?  Is  not  the  warning  which 
you  hear  at  this  hour,  the  identical  warning  which  your 
fathers  heard  and  scoffed  at,  and  were  destroyed ;  and 
though  generation  after  generation  has  passed  away,  has 
one  jot  or  one  tittle  of  God's  Word  ever  passed  away? 
So  far  from  it  that  I  leave  you  to  pronounce  whether  one 
syllable  was  changed,  whether  one  syllable  ever  fell  to 
the  ground  of  all  that  the  Lord  had  spoken.  Did  not 
the  judgments  which  he  long  had  threatened,  at  the  last 
overtake  your  fathers?  Were  they  not  themselves  com- 
pelled to  declare  that  God  never  thought  to  bring  one 
judgment  upon  them,  and  brought  it  not?  How  con- 
vincing an  argument,  how  striking  a  conclusion  to  the 
present  message  of  the  Almighty,  thus  to  refer  to  the 
neglect  and  to  the  fulfilment  of  all  that  had  preceded  it. 

My  intention  then,  brethren,  this  morning,  is  to  en- 
deavour to  impress  upon  you  the  importance  and  the  ne- 
cessity of  your  laying  earnestly  to  heart  all  those  messages 
from  God,  all  the  warnings,  all  the  precepts,  all  the  pro- 
mises,  which  you  have  heard  from  this  place  during  the 
last  twelvemonth,  by  the  same  considerations,  the  immu- 
tability of  God,  and  the  mutability  of  his  people,  the  im- 
changeableness  of  God  and  of  his  Word,  and  the  transito- 
riness  of  you  who  hear,  and  of  us  who  proclaim  it. 

First,  from  the  immutability  of  God,  and  the  un- 
changeableness  of  his  Word.  If  we  who  are  the  minis- 
ters of  the  Most  High,  were  commissioned  to  bring  you 
message  after  message  from  the  great  God  of  heaven  and 
earth, and  if  these  messages  all  were  different  the  one  from 
the  other ;  if  the  warning  of  to-day  were  less  solemn  and 
less  awakening  than  the  warning  of  yesterday,  or  the  pro- 
mises of  to-morrow  more  abundant  than  those  of  to-day, 
we  can  easily  imagine  you  waiting  in  suspense,  Sabbath 

2 


J4  THE  MUTABILITY  OF  MAN, 

after  Sabbath,  and  year  after  year,  watching  for  the  mosi 
favourable  opportunity,  carefully  preparing  for  the  hour 
when  you  could  make  the  most  profitable  terms  with 
God,  and  turn  to  him  in  penitence  and  faith.  But, 
orethren,  you  well  know  that  this  is  not  the  fact,  that 
there  is  one  message,  and  but  one,  which  the  ministers 
of  God  have  for  more  than  eighteen  centuries  been  com- 
missioned to  sound  in  the  ears  of  his  "people :  that  this 
message  no  man,  no  angel  can  ever  alter;  for  did  not  the 
chief  apostle  to  the  Gentiles  distinctly  say,  "  There  be 
some  that  would  pervert  the  Gospel  of  Christ.  But 
though  we,  or  an  angel  from  heaven,  preach  any  othe 
Gospel  unto  you  than  that  which  we  have  preached  unto 
you,  let  him  be  accursed  I"  The  counsel  and  the  word 
of  the  Most  High  are  therefore  as  immutable  as  his 
person;  for  does  he  not  again  expressly  say  by  the  pro- 
phet Ezekiel,  "I  am  the  Lord  :  I  will  speak,  and  the 
word  that  I  shall  speak  shall  come  to  pass."  "I  am  the 
Lord,  I  change  not."  Can  you  then,  brethren,  justify 
yourselves  in  this,  that  knowing  as  you  well  know,  and  as 
we  all  know,  that  this  is  the  truth  ;  that  the  word  which 
has  once  passed  from  the  lips  of  the  Almighty,  can  never 
alter;  that  the  straight  way  will  not  be  made  broader,  or 
the  narrow  gate  wider,  even  though  a  world  of  sinners 
were  struggling  for  admittance ;  can  you  justify  your- 
selves in  this,  that  after  the  way  of  salvation  has  been 
once  fairly  proposed  to  you,  after  the  Lamb  of  God,  who 
alone  taketh  away  the  sins  of  the  world,  has  been  plainly 
presented  to  you,  and  the  value  of  your  soul,  and  the 
heinousness  of  sin,  and  the  necessity  of  repentance,  and 
the  unutterable  import  of  eternity,  have  been  all  distinctly 
se>  before  you,  you  should  yet  be  found  slumbering  at 
your  post,  deaf  to  warning,  and  callous  to  entreaties? 
Did  you  ever  seriously  think  for  one  quarter  of  an  hour, 


THE  IMMUTABILITY  OF  GOD.  J£ 

of  the  value  of  your  soul?  Did  you  ever  reflect  that 
after  these  little  periods  of  time,  year  after  year,  have  run 
away,  that  you  possess  what  cannot  die,  that  you  carry 
within  you  that  which,  when  unnumbered  ages  shall 
have  run  their  course,  will  not  be  one  day  nearer  to  the 
termination  of  its  existence  than  it  is  this  morning?  and 
that  the  fate  of  this  immortal  portion  of  you  depends 
upon  these  few,  brief,  unthought  of  periods,  another  of 
which  has,  since  yesterday,  joined  its  brethren  beyond 
the  flood  ?  O  how  earnestly  would  we  desire  to  plead 
with  you,  if  any  are  now  present,  careless  and  indifferent, 
at  this  commencement  of  another  year,  upon  your  blind- 
ness and  infatuation. 

Look  only  at  the  words  of  the  text,  and  observe  from 
<hem,  what  has  been  the  confession  of  the  thoughtless 
sinner ;  the  man  who  lives  and  dies  inattentive  to  the 
voice  of  warning,  and  of  mercy,  in  every  age  that  has 
passed  over  us;  and  be  assured  that  his  experience  must 
one  day  be  your  own.  You  may  for  a  time  escape  the 
danger  of  which  God  has  warned  you;  you  may  find 
pleasure,  even  though  it  be  a  transitory  pleasure,  in  the 
follies  and  the  sins  of  the  world ;  still  a  day  must  come 
when  God  will  seal  the  truth  of  every  warning  and 
every  threatening  you  have  heard  in  characters  of  fire 
upon  your  souls:  a  day  must  arrive,  when  the  heartfelt 
confession  will  be  wrung  from  you,  which  was  there 
wrung  from  the  impenitent  Jews,  "Like  as  the  Lord  of 
hosts  thought  to  do  unto  us,  according  to  our  ways,  and 
according  to  our  doings,  so  hath  he  dealt  with  us." 
Yes,  brethren,  depend  upon  it,  what  God  thinks  he 
shall  do,  that  he  will  do,  although  earth  and  hell  en- 
deavour to  arrest  his  progress.  Has  it  not  been  always 
thus  from  the  very  foundation  of  the  world?  What 
would  be  the  testimony  of  our  first  parents?  God 


|^g  THE  MUTABILITY  OF  MAN, 

thought  to  punish  their  disobedience,  and  they  hid 
themselves  from  God  among  the  trees  of  the  garden ; 
did  they  escape?  What  would  be  the  testimony  of  the 
antediluvian  world  ?  God  thought  to  destroy  them  with 
a  flood,  which  should  overwhelm  both  man  and  beast, 
young  and  old;  did  they  escape?  No;  though  a  whole 
world  was  in  arms  against  God,  their  numbers  found  no 
protection, — "  like  as  he  thought  to  do  unto  them,  ac- 
cording to  their  ways,  and  according  to  their  doings,  so 
did  he  deal  with  them."  So  was  it  amidst  the  fires  of 
Sodom ;  so  was  it  at  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem ;  so 
shall  it  be  on  that  day,  when  time  gives  place  to  eternity. 
Not  an  individual  ever  passes  out  of  this  world  in  that 
enmity  to  God  in  which  he  was  born,  and  in  which  he 
lived,  who,  if  he  were  obliged  to  confess  the  truth,  would 
not  be  compelled  to  speak  as  these  have  spoken.  Many, 
no  doubt,  depart  in  stupid  ignorance  of  all  that  shall 
come  after,  as  the  ox  goeth  to  the  slaughter ;  but  this  is 
only  postponing  the  confession,  not  denying  it.  Of  the 
great  majority,  we  scruple  not  to  say,  that  the  feelings 
of  their  closing  hours  are  of  this  nature, — "  What  God 
has  threatened  he  will  perform;  would  that  I  might  re- 
trace my  steps;  would  that  I  might  live  over  again  t'he 
wasted  hours,  the  mispent  days,  the  sinning  years,  that 
are  now  gone — and  gone  for  ever."  Then  it  is  that  the 
words  of  God,  neglected  in  health,  forgotten  in  prosperity, 
<l  take  hold,"  or  as  the  marginal  reading  still  more  em- 
phatically expresses  it,  "overtake"  the  sinner's  soul,  and 
extort  from  him  the  humiliating  confession. 

But  the  expression  of  the  text  is  peculiarly  striking, 
"They  returned  and  said."  It  is  as  if  they  \vere  on  the 
very  brink  of  destruction,  as  if  with  one  foot  in  the  grave; 
miy  more,  as  if  the  hand  of  God  already  pressed  upon 
them  in  his  wrath,  when  they  turned  back,  and  acknow 


THE  IMMUTABILITY  OF  GOD 


iedged?  God  has  indeed  been  too  strong  for  us,  we  have 
sown  to  the  wind,  and  we  must  reap  the  whirlwind. 
Brethren,  how  fearful  would  be  the  testimony  if  all  who 
have  experienced,  who  are  experiencing,  this  immutable 
truth,  could  return  but  for  one  hour,  and  bear  their  evi- 
dence to  its  fulfilment.  What  a  scene,  of  anguish  and  of 
misery  would  be  laid  bare  before  our  eyes,  if  every  im- 
penitent sinner,  every  individual  who  commenced  the 
last  year  in  health  and  carelessness  and  defiance  of  God, 
and  heard  unmoved  these  threatenings  and  these  warn- 
ings, and  has  since  been  called  away  in  the  same  state 
of  impenitency  and  sin,  could  now  rise  up  before  us  and 
return  to  say,  "Like  as  the  Lord  of  hosts  thought  to  do 
unto  me,  according  to  my  ways,  and  according  to  my 
doings,  so  hath  he  dealt/5  so  is  he  dealing,  so  shall  he 
deal  with  me  throughout  eternity  ! 

Who  could  hear  unmoved  such  an  attestation  to  the 
unchangeableness  of  God  ?  Who  can  bear  to  think  that 
there  is  a  living  soul  who  could  make  it?  Yet,  can  we 
question,  can  we  for  a  moment  doubt,  if  God  and  his 
Word  be  thus  immutable,  that  if  the  prison-house  of 
eternity  were  unbarred,  and  its  guilty  inhabitants  driven, 
forth,  if  the  floor  of  this  church  were  for  a  moment 
occupied  by  the  "spirits  now  in  prison,"  enveloped  in 
their  chains  of  fire,  they  would  all — all  as  with  one  voice, 
one  yell  of  self-condemnation  and  despair,  proclaim  the 
dreadful  truth.  "  For  God  is  not  a  man  that  he  should 
lie,  neither  the  son  of  man  that  he  should  repent;  hath 
he  said,  and  shall  he  not  do  it?  or  hath  he  spoken,  and 
shall  he  not  make  it  good?"  O,  be  assured,  brethren 
that  as  every  promise  to  the  believer  is,  "  Yea,  and 
amen,  in  Christ  Jesus;"  so  every  threatening  to  the  im- 
penitent sinner's  soul  is  fixed  as  immovably  as  tho 
foundations  of  the  throne  of  God 


Jg  THE  MUTABILITY  OV  MAN, 

But  we  must  pass  from  these  strong  motives  offered 
you  for  immediate  repentance,  by  this  view  of  the  im- 
mutability of  God  and  of  his  Word,  to  the  no  less  strik- 
ing, no  less  affecting  motive  we  may  derive  from  the 
mutability  of  you  who  hear,  and  of  us  who  present  them. 

"  Your  fathers,  where  are  they  ?" 

What  a  touching  inquiry,  when  made  by  God  him- 
self, as  in  the  text,  to  his  poor,  perishing,  wandering 
people.  If  you  examine  the  preceding  verses,  you  will 
see  that  it  was  spoken  more  in  sorrow  than  in  anger.  It 
was  not  the  language  of  scorn,  or  of  insult,  for  he  who 
asked  the  question  has  just  before  said,  "  Be  ye  not  as 
your  fathers."  "  Turn  ye  unto  me,  and  I  will  turn  unto 
you,  saith  the  Lord  of  hosts."  There  were  love  and 
mercy,  therefore,  still  in  store  for  them ;  but  nevertheless, 
for  all  this  "  God  would  be  inquired  of  by  them."  And 
it  was  therefore  to  excite  this  feeling  in  their  breast,  by 
awakening  again  the  sorrows  which  were  slumbering 
there,  that  the  Almighty  thus  referred  to  those  who 
were  gone. 

Surely  he  who  made  the  human  heart,  well  knew 
how  best  to  touch  the  springs  by  which  its  sympathies 
are  opened,  when  he  asked  the  affecting  question,  "  Your 
fathers,  where  are  they?"  Has  not  the  grave  even  now 
closed  over  them?  Are  they  so  early  called  away,  and 
have  you  no  desire,  when  God  shall  take  you  hence,  to 
follow  them?  If  the  Word  of  God  can  awaken  no 
spiritual  feeling  within  your  breast,  can  it  also  touch  no 
natural  chord  that  lies  responsive  there?  Have  you 
never  so  loved  one  earthly  being,  whom  God  has  taken 
to  himself  before  you,  that  you  would  rejoice  in  the 
thought  of  seeing  that  object  of  your  affection  at  God's 
right  hand  ?  Here,  then,  is  a  motive,  and  comparatively 
low  and  selfish  though  it  be,  we  would  leave  untried  no 


THE  IMMUTABILITY  OF  GOD.  [Q 

motive  which  may  win  you  to  your  own  eternal  happi- 
ness, which  may  plant  you  as  a  jewel  in  your  Redeemer's 
crown.  If  there  be  those  to  whom  you  would  desire  to 
be  reunited,  in  the  realms  of  bliss,  O  delay  not,  trifle 
not,  with  this  great  salvation.  "  The  time  past  of  your 
life  may  suffice  to  have  wrought  the  will  of  the  Gentiles;" 
now,  even  to-day,  "  put  off  the  works  of  darkness,  and 
put  upon  you  the  armour  of  light;  come,  all  sinful 
though  you  be ;  come,  but  in  penitence  and  faith,  to  the 
Saviour  of  your  soul;  he  invites  you,  he  urges  you,  he 
intreats  you,  by  every  hope  of  present  pardon  and  of 
future  blessedness,  to  come  unto  him,  that  your  soul 
may  live. 

But  the  mutability  of  "man  is  impressed  upon  you  by 
another  example,  in  the  words  of  the  text,  "  The  pro- 
phets, do  they  live  for  ever?"  Do  not  they  who  bear 
my  messages  to  you  pass  away  like  a  shadow  that  de- 
parteth?  And  ought  not  this  reflection  to  induce  you  to 
improve  the  opportunity  while  it  lasts;  to  hear  them 
while  they  are  permitted  to  speak  unto  you?  There 
are  few  of  us,  perhaps,  who  have  not  at  this  moment 
within  our  veins  the  seeds  of  those  diseases  which  in 
God's  good  time  (always  the  best  time)  will  finish  our 
work,  and  carry  us  before  his  judgment-seat,  who  shall 
"  try  every  man's  work,  of  what  sort  it  is."  This  cannot 
but  remind  us  that  our  opportunities  of  warning,  inviting, 
urging  you,  may  be  but  few;  that  another  opening  year 
may  find  our  labours  finished,  our  lips  for  ever  closed. 
As  one,  then,  who  is  not  ignorant  that  he  may  shortly 
put  off  this  tabernacle,  we  would  always  desire  to  speak 
as  dying  unto  dying  men,  and  urge  you,  if  you  have 
never  yet  "  taken  hold  of  the  word  of  life,"  if  you  have 
never  yet  realized  its  tremendous  truths,  that  you  would 
this  day  cease  from  trifling  with  God  and  with  your  souls; 
for  it  is  trifling,  trifling  of  the  most  alarming  kind,  year 


20  THE  MUTABILITY  OF  MAN, 

after  year  to  listen  to  the  fullest  revelations  of  the  GospeA 
of  peace,  and  year  after  year  to  live  as  if  convinced  of 
their  utter  fallacy.  We  urge  you,  then,  beloved  brethren, 
by  the  certainty  that  the  time  is  short,  and  that  the 
fashion  of  this  world  passeth  away;  by  the  memory  of 
those  who  have  gone  before,  and  to  whom  you  wish  to 
be  re-united ;  by  the  probability  that  our  opportunities 
of  setting  these  things  home  upon  your  conscience  may 
be  but  few;  by  the  blessedness  of  heaven;  by  the  ter- 
rors of  hell — that  you  fly  to  the  great  propitiation,  to  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  give  yourselves  up  to  him  from 
this  day  even  for  ever. 

Referring  once  more,  for  the  last  time,  to  the  words  of 
the  text,  suppose  for  a  moment  that  they  to  whom  they 
were  addressed  had  been  compelled  to  answer  those 
solemn  queries,  how  fearful  would  have  been  the  reply' 
"  Your  fathers,  where  are  they?"  Gone,  gone  for  ever, 
to  give  an  account  of  their  stubbornness,  their  disobe- 
dience, their  ingratitude,  and  their  sins,  and  to  suffer  the 
due  reward  of  their  deeds.  "The  prophets,"  where  are 
they  ?  Gone  also ;  gone  to  stand  face  to  face,  to  con- 
front our  fathers  at  the  judgment-seat  of  God ;  gone  to 
stand  face  to  face  with  them  at  that  bar,  and  to  pro- 
nounce, "  We  did  not  shun  to  declare  unto  you  the 
whole  counsel  of  God;"  we  warned  you,  we  threatened 
you,  we  invited  you,  whether  you  would  hear,  or  whe- 
ther you  would  forbear ;  we  altered  not  the  message  of 
our  God  ;  and  all  of  which  we  have  forewarned  you  has 
this  day  come  to  pass.  And  think  you,  brethren,  that  it 
will  be  a  less  fearful  thing  when  Christian  ministers  and 
Christian  congregations  shall  meet  before  that  dread 
tribunal,  than  thus  for  Jewish  hearers  and  Jewish  pro- 
phets? How,  then,  are  we,  as  ministers,  prepared  for 
that  approaching  scene?  Can  we,  your  ministers,  de- 
clare that  we  have  left  no  effort  untried,  no  means  ne- 


THE  IMMUTABILITY  OF  GOD.  21 

gleet ed,  no  entreaties  unemployed,  which  might  have 
won  you  from  your  worldliness  and  forgetfulness  of  God. 
and  awakened  you  from  your  sleep  of  death?  Alas. 
God  knows  that  we  cannot,  that  we  have  not  only,  as 
the  apostle  declared  of  his  own  ministry,  been  "  with 
you  in  weakness  and.  in  fear,  and  in  much  trembling," 
but  in  coldness,  and  in  inefficiency,  and  in  much  un- 
faithfulness;  but  thanks  be  to  God  for  his  unspeakable 
gift;  thanks  be  to  God  that  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ 
cleanses  from  all  sin,  ministerial  as  well  as  personal; 
lor  looKing  back  upon  the  cross,  we  do  find  peace  and 
comfort  there,  or  fearfully  should  we  dread  that  corning 
hour.  And  you,  brethren,  how  are  you  prepared  to 
meet  us,  "your  servants  for  Christ's  sake,"  in  the  pre- 
sence and  before  the  throne  of  our  Master?  Remember, 
"  if  our  Gospel  be  hid,'  it  is  hid  to  them  that  are  lost." 
Has  our  Gospel,  then,  been  unto  you  "  the  savour  of 
life  unto  life,  or  of  death  unto  death  ?"  Recollect  that 
the  same  sun  which  softens  the  wax  hardens  the  clay. 
Has  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel,  with  all  its  precious 
promises,  its  unbounded  offers,  its  overwhelming  great 
and  glorious  anticipations,  softened  or  hardened  you? 
And  shall  we  on  that  day  rejoice  in  the  presence  of  our 
Lord  over  your  complete  and  full  salvation,  hailing  your 
entrance  into  everlasting  blessedness;  or  shall  we  weep, 
"  if  souls  can  weep  in  bliss,"  that  those  who  have  once 
united  with  us  in  the  prayers  and  praises  of  these  earthly 
temples,  shall  unite  with  us  again  no  more  for  ever? 
May  these  inquiries  be  fixed  upon  your  consciences ; 
may  they  return  to  you  in  the  silence  of  your  chambers, 
in  hours  of  thoughtfulness,  and  hours  of  sleeplessness; 
and  may  they  never  leave  you  until  they  have  led  you 
from  reflection  to  prayer,  and  from  prayer  to  Christ,  and 
from  Christ  to  God,  and  from  God  to  heaven! 


SERMON  II. 

THE  CHRISTIAN'S  REFUGE.  * 

ISAIAH  xxxn.  2.    ' 

A  man  shall  be  a  hiding  place  from  the  wind,  and  a  covert  from 
the  tempest ;  as  rivers  of  water  in  a  dry  place,  as  the  shadow  of 
,  a  great  rock  in  a  weary  land. 

THIS  is  a  very  remarkable  prophecy  and  promise,  and 
at  first  sight  most  strikingly  at  variance  with  almost  every 
other. declaration  of  the  Word  of  God.  For  let  us  dwell 
for  a  moment  upon  some  of  the  statements  of  that  in- 
spired volume.  Hear  the  declaration  of  this  same  prophet 
Isaiah  in  his  second  chapter,  "  Cease  ye  from  man, 
whose  breath  is  in  his  nostrils."  Listen  again  to  the 
words  of  David,  "  Trust  in  the  Lord  at  all  times,  ye 
people."  Hear  also  the  words  of  Jeremiah,  "  Cursed  be 
the  man  that  trusteth  in  man,  and  maketh  flesh  his  arm." 
These  and  many  other  testimonies  might  be  adduced,  to 
prove  that  the  whole  tenor  of  Divine  writ  runs  counter 
to  the  passage  of  the  text,  "  A  man  shall  be  as  a  hiding 
place  from  the  wind."  A  poor,  weak,  helpless  mortal, 
unable  to  protect  himself  from  the  wind  and  tempest, 
and  shall  he  be  our  refuge?  Shall  God's  own  word  com- 
mand us  to  leave  the  living  fountain,  and  betake  our- 
selves, in  our  necessities,  to  the  broken  cisterns  of  earth  ? 
Strange  inconsistency,  strange  contradiction  to  every  other 
portion  of  God's  Word !  But,  perhaps,  there  is  a  meaning 
22 


THE  CHRISTIAN'S  REFUGE.  23 

in  the  passage  which  does  not  appear  upon  the  surface ; 
perhaps  there  is  some  peculiarity  in  the  man  there  men- 
tioned, different  from  all  the  other  children  of  men  that 
ever  lived;  and  so  different,  so  widely  different,  that 
while  they  are  all  the  creatures  of  a  day,  of  whom  the 
unerring  Word  of  God  has  said,  "  Put  not  your  trust  in 
princes,  nor  in  any  child  of  man,  for  there  is  no  help  in 
them."  Of  this  Man  it  shall  be  declared  that,  "  At  his 
name  every  knee  shall  bow,  of  things  in  heaven,  and 
things  in  earth,  and  things  under  the  earth;  and  every 
tongue  shall  confess  that  he  is  Lord,  to  the  glory  of  God 
the  Father;'-'  that  "all  power  is  given  unto  him  in 
heaven  and  in  earth,"  that  "  he  upholdeth  all  things  by 
the  word  of  his  power,"  and  that  "  whoso  trusteth  in  him 
shall  never  be  confounded." 

Blessed  be  God,  his  own  Word  assures  us  that  it  is  so; 
he  who  has  declared  in  the  text  that, "  a  man  shall  be  as 
a  hiding-place  from  the  wind,"  has  declared  by  the 
mouth  of  the  prophet  Zechariah,  who  that  man  is,  when 
he  says,  "  Awake,  O  sword,  against  the  man  that  is  my 
fellow,  saith  the  Lord  of  hosts."  My  equal,  not  merely 
near  to  God,  but  one  who  should  "think  it  no  robbery 
to  be  equal  with  God,"  even  "  the  Man  Christ  Jesus;" 
equal  to  the  Father  as  touching  his  Godhead,  though 
inferior  to  the  Father  as  touching  his  manhood;  who, 
although  born  of  a  woman,  and  made  after  the  likeness 
of  sinful  flesh,  is  yet  declared  to  have  been  throughout 
ail  eternity  in  the  bosom  of  the  Father,  "  GW,  of  the 
substance  of  the  Father,  begotten  before  the  worlds;" 
and  who  is  thus  spoken  of  by  the  Spirit  of  God  himself, 
when  predicting  the  event  of  this  day,  "  Unto  us  a  child 
is  born,  unto  us  a  son  is  given,  and  the  government  shall 
be  upon  his  shoulder,  and  his  name  shall  be  called 
Wonderful,  Counsellor,  the  Mighty  God,  the  everlasting 


24 


THE  CHRISTIAN'S  REFUGE. 


Father,  the  Prince  of  peace."  It  is  then  of  this  Man, 
David's  son,  according  to  the  flesh,  but  David's  Lord,  by 
an  eternal  generation;  "perfect  God,  and  perfect  man, 
of  a  reasonable  soul,  and  human  flesh  subsisting,"  that 
we  are  to  speak,  taking  the  words  of  the  text  as  a  remark- 
able and  beautiful  metaphor  of  what  he  is  able  and  will- 
ing to  be  and  to  do  for  his  people. 

The  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  then,  reveals  himself  in  the 
words  before  us  under  two  striking  similitudes ;  the  first 
of  which  regards  his  people's  safety,  and  the  second  their 
consolations, 

I.  As  regards  their  safety. 

"  A  man  shall  be  as  a  hiding-place  from  the  wind, 
and  a  covert  from  the  tempest."  If  you  desire  to  under- 
stand the  full  force  of  the  image,  picture  to  yourself  one 
of  those  scenes  which  eastern  travellers  paint,  when  they 
describe  the  passage  of  a  caravan  across  some  dreary  and 
uninhabited  desert,  where,  throughout  the  long  day's 
journey,  there  is  no  house,  no  rock,  no  tree,  to  offer  a 
moment's  shade  or  a  moment's  shelter.  In  the  midst  of 
such  a  scene  the  wind  suddenly  rises,  and  the  lightning 
glares  around,  and  in  the  distance  are  beheld  gigantic 
columns  of  sand,  raised  and  kept  together  in  such  vast 
masses  by  the  whirlwind  as  to  exclude  even  the  rays  of 
the  sun  from  passing  through  them,  and  as  these  fearful 
phenomena  approach,  every  thing  is  overwhelmed  before 
them ;  the  poor  bewildered  travellers  behold  in  them  at 
once  their  destruction  and  their  grave.  In  vain  do  they 
attempt  to  fly ;  their  gigantic  enemies  are  coming  upon 
the  wings  of  the  wind,  and  nothing  mortal  can  outstrip 
them;  in  vain  do  they  attempt  to  face  them;  for  who 
can  wage  equal  war  against  the  elements?  all  hope  is  at 
an  end,  all  efforts  vain;  the  wind  slackens  not,  the  tem- 
pest does  not  cease,  and  before  the  shortest  prayer  is 


THE  CHRISTIAN'S  REFUGE.  25 

finished,  that  multitude,  that  was  but  now  replete  with 
life  and  animation,  is  hushed  in  silence;  every  mouth  is 
stopped,  every  heart  has  ceased  to  beat;  the  simoon  of 
the  desert  has  passed  over  them,  and  the  place  they 
occupied  is  scarcely  to  be  distinguished  from  the  sur- 
rounding plain. 

Now  imagine  in  such  a  scene,  and  at  such  a  season 
(and  this  is  no  flight  of  imagination,  but  a  simple  though 
appalling  fact)  the  feelings  with  which  these  alarmed 
and  flying  travellers  would  greet  a  "  hiding-place,"  and 
"  a  covert."  Imagine  that  while  they  were  looking  with 
an  apprehension  which  we  can  scarcely  conceive  at  those 
advancing  pillars  of  sand  in  which  they  were  so  shortly 
to  be  entombed,  they  should  on  a  sudden  behold  a  rock 
of  adamant  spring  up  before  them,  a  barrier  which  neither 
sand,  nor  wind,  nor  tempest,  could  overleap.  What  would 
be  their  feelings  of  joy,  their  thoughts  of  gratitude,  their 
language  of  praise !  Oh  !  who  can  imagine  the  heartfelt 
cry  of  thanksgiving  to  God  which  would  arise  from  that 
vast  multitude  at  so  complete,  so  merciful,  so  unhoped-for 
a  deliverance.  Then,  brethren,  such  are  the  feelings 
with  which  we  would  encourage  you  to  "  behold  the 
Man"  of  whom  we  this  day  speak.  Our  sins  had  raised 
a  tempest  of  the  wrath  of  God,  against  which  the  whole 
created  host  of  heaven  would  in  vain  have  attempted  to 
erect  a  barrier.  Therefore  said  the  Lord,  "  I  have  laid 
help  upon  one  that  is  mighty."  "  I  looked,  and  there  was 
none  to  help;  and  I  wondered  that  there  was  none  to 
uphold :  therefore  mine  own  arm  brought  salvation."  He 
has  on  this  day,  taking  upon  himself  our  nature,  placed 
himself  between  us  and  his  Father's  wrath  ;  he  stood 
alone  as  that  wall  of  adamant,  between  us  and  the 
coming  tempest.  All  that  would  have  driven  us  from 
the  presence  of  God  for  ever,  or  have  overwhelmed  our 

3 


2(5  THE  CHRISTIAN'S  REFUGE. 

souls  with  remediless  destruction,  fell  upon  Him,  and 
upon  Him  alone,  and  by  his  life  of  suffering  and  hu- 
miliation and  obedience,  and  by  his  death  of  agony,  and 
by  his  resurrection  of  power,  we  were  secured.  The 
tempest,  which  would  have  scattered  us  as  chaff  before 
the  whirlwind,  has  lost  its  power;  and  now,  if  we  have 
fled  into  the  "  hiding-place,"  if  we  are  seated  beneath 
"  his  shadow,"  passes  harmlessly  above  our  head,  or  is 
heard  by  us,  as  many  of  you  this  evening,  when  seated 
comfortably  in  your  warm  and  peaceful  dwellings,  sur- 
rounded by  the  quiet  circle  of  your  own  happy  families, 
will  listen  to  the  winds  or  rain  of  winter,  blessing  God 
that  you  enjoy  a  refuge  and  a  home. 

Such  are  the  sentiments  which  the  present  season 
ought  more  especially  to  awaken  in  our  bosoms. 

Yes,  brethren,  such  are  the  feelings  which  you  ought 
to  possess  this  day,  such  are  the  feelings  which  you  will 
possess,  if  you  have  been  led  by  the  Spirit  of  God  to 
him,  who  has  thus  been  made  of  God,  "a  hiding-place," 
and  "a  covert" — feelings  of  security  and  joy  and  peace 
and  safety.  But  then,  you,  and  you  alone,  can  ascer- 
tain whether  these  feelings  are  your  own.  I  need  not 
tell  you  that  an  unapplied  Saviour,  is  no  Saviour  to 
your  souls.  I  need  not  tell  you  that  the  hiding-place,  is 
a  hiding-place  to  him  who  is  within  it,  not  to  him  who 
stands  without :  that  fhe  covert,  is  no  covert  to  him  who  re- 
mains uncovered;  that  a  Christian  baptism,  a  Christian 
sanctuary  and  Christan  ministry,  yea,  and  even  a  Christ 
himself,  are  necessarily  no  safeguard  to  you.  If  you  stand 
without,  justice  must  have  its  course  ;  the  law  which  you 
have  broken  must  be  avenged ;  the  Saviour  whom  you 
have  rejected  must  be  glorified,  if  not  by  you,  in  your  sal- 
vation, then  upon  you,  in  your  punishment.  If  the  safety, 
which  every  redeemed  and  ransomed  child  of  God  may 


THE  CHRISTIAN'S  REFUGE. 


27 


possess,  is  not  yours,  it  is  only  because  you  accept  it  not ; 
if  the  Spirit  is  not  yours,  it  is  only  because  you  seek  him 
not ;  if  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  is  not  yours,  it  is  only  be- 
cause you  love  him  not.  O  fearful  state  for  any  indivi- 
dual possessing  within  him  a  never-dying  soul,  and 
looking  forward  to  a  never-ending  existence ;  but  most 
fearful  to  you,  if  such  there  be,  who,  although  the  bap- 
tized members  of  the  outward  church  of  Christ,  have 
never  sought,  are  not  now  seeking,  a  real  interest  in  his 
blood,  a  conformity  to  his  will,  a  place  in  his  kingdom. 

II.  But  let  us  proceed  from  the  consideration  of  the 
similitude  which  regards  his  people's  safety,  to  that  which 
regards  his  people's  comfort. 

A  man  shall  be  as  "  rivers  of  water  in  a  dry  place,  as  the 
shadow  of  a  great  rock  in  a  weary  land."  While  the 
"  rock,"  in  climates  and  countries,  such  as  we  have 
alluded  to,  shadows  forth  the  strength  and  protection 
which  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  offers  to  his  people,  "rivers 
of  water,"  beneath  a  burning  sun,  and  on  a  burning  soil, 
equally  shadow  forth  comfort  and  consolation. 

In  passing  through  the  world,  however,  the  people  of 
the  world,  surrounded  by  its  joys,  courted  by  its  friends, 
backed  by  its  good  opinions,  may  be  enabled  to  delight  in 
it,  to  the  children  of  God  it  is  ofttimes,  "a  dry  and  barren 
place."  There  are  many  causes,  externally  and  inter- 
nally, to  make  it  so.  There  are  times  when  trials  and 
afflictions  and  anxieties  press  closely  upon  us;  when 
those  we  love  are  laid  upon  beds  of  sickness,  or  followed 
to  an  early  grave ;  when  our  prospects  are  darkened  by 
disappointment,  or  marred  by  adversity ;  when  the  world, 
at  all  times  destitute  of  the  real  consolations  of  the  Chris- 
tian, becomes  more  barren,  and  more  desolate  than  the 
wide  and  waste-howling  wilderness  itself.  At  times  like 
these,  whither  can  the  child  of  God  betake  himself?  You 


2Q  THE  CHRISTIAN'S  REFUGE. 

look  not  for  earthly  succour ;  it  is  vain  to  look?  for  alt 
those  whom  you  love  are  perhaps  plunged  in  the  same 
calamity,  borne  down  by  the  same  trial  as  yourself.  How 
blessed,  then,  to  feel  that  there  is  one  who  visited  this 
world  of  ours,  and  lived  as  you  are  now  living ;  who 
carried  about  with  him  a  body  of  infirmity  and  death  ; 
who  grieved  for  the  same  losses,  and  wept  over  the  same 
afflictions  from  which  you  are  weeping;  and  is  presented 
to  you,  in  the  Word  of  God,  as  man,  that  you  may  feel 
assured  of  his  sympathy,  while  he  is  also  presented  to 
you  as  God,  that  you  may  feel  certain  of  his  power. 
Does  your  soul,  then,  in  these  dry  places,  thirst  for  con- 
solation and  succour?  That  Man  is  proclaimed  in  the 
text  to  be  as  "  rivers  of  water  in  a  dry  place ;"  that  Man, 
in  the  days  of  his  flesh,  "  stood  and  cried,  If  any  man 
thirst,  let  him  come  unto  me  and  drink,"  and  "  the  water 
that  I  shall  give  him,  shall  be  in  him  a  well  of  wrater 
springing  up  into  everlasting  life." 

Here  then  is  your  consolation ;  as  your  safety  is  to  be 
found  in  Christ,  so  also  is  your  comfort.  He  shall  be  to 
you  not  only  a  covert  from  God's  wrath,  but  a  river; 
nay  more,  rivers,  to  show  the  abundance  of  his  consola- 
tions, "rivers  of  water,"  when  you  are  fainting  under 
the  trials,  or  anxieties,  or  distresses  of  the  world.  Now, 
brethren,  do  you  know  any  thing  of  the  blessedness  of 
this  source  of  consolation?  It  is  not  enough  that  the 
river  is  running  at  your  feet,  but  you  must  know  that  it 
is  there,  you  must  drink  of  its  waters,  or  they  will  not 
assuage  your  thirst.  Recollect  a  beautiful  illustration  of 
this  in  the  history  of  Hagar,  when  driven  from  the  tent 
of  Abraham.  You  will  remember  that  when  she  was 
cast  out  into  the  wilderness  with  her  child,  and  had 
looked  in  vain  for  a  supply  of  water ;  when  all  that  was 
in  the  bottle  was  spent,  when  the  streamlets  were  dry, 


THE  CHRISTIAN'S  REFUGE.  29 

arid  the  clouds  promised  no  rain,  she  sat  down  in  utter 
hopelessness  and  helplessness,  having  cast  the  child 
under  one  of  the  shrubs  that  she  might  not  see  it  die. 
And  we  are  told,  that  as  she  lifted  up  her  voice  and  wept, 
the  Angel  of  the  Lord  called  to  her  out  of  heaven,  and 
said,  "What  aileth  thee,  Hagar?  fear  not:  and  God 
opened  her  eyes,  and  she  saw  a  well  of  water,"  suf- 
ficient, amply  sufficient,  for  the  need  both  of  the  mother 
and  the  child,  during  their  whole  sojourn  in  the  wilder- 
ness. How  beautiful  an  instance  of  the  mercy  and  the 
power  of  God  !  How  apt  a  type  of  the  Christian's  situa- 
tion here  below.  You  may  at  this  moment  be  sitting 
by  "  the  river  of  water,"  of  which  I  am  speaking,  and 
yet  be  as  ignorant — as  practically  ignorant  of  its  exist- 
ence, as  Hagar  was;  as  little  benefitted,  and  as  little 
blessed,  as  if  its  healing  waters  were  still  a  sealed  foun- 
tain, which  had  never  been  opened,  or  a  river  locked  in 
everlasting  ice,  and  whose  streams  never  poured  forth 
rich  abundance  at  your  feet.  What  aileth  thee,  that 
thou  seest  it  not?  Pray  to  Him  who  alone  can  open 
your  eyes.  Pray  to  God  for  his  dear  Son's  sake,  to 
show  you  the  well  which  stands  beside  you,  whose 
living  waters  are  for  ever  full,  for  ever  flowing,  and  of 
which,  if  any  man  drink,  he  shall  never  thirst.  Beseech 
him  to  reveal  to  you  the  Son  of  his  love,  as  a  full  and 
sufficient  Saviour;  one  who  will  not  only  bear  all  your 
sins,  but  all  your  sorrows,  and  not  only  be  your  strength 
and  your  salvation,  but  your  joy,  your  peace,  your  strong 
consolation. 

Lastly,  are  there  none  among  you,  even  of  the  child- 
ren of  God,  who  find  this  world  to  be  a  "  weary  land," 
on  account  of  the  spiritual  disquietudes  of  your  pil- 
grimage, not  merely  those  you  behold  around  you,  but 
those  which  you  continually  experience  within  you  ; 


3Q  THE  CHRISTIAN'S  REFUGE. 

none,  who,  although  reconciled,  as  we  hope,  to  the  God 
of  your  salvation,  still  find  constant  oppositioxn,  and  toil, 
and  conflict,  from  the  troubles  of  the  journey,  and  like 
the  Israelites  of  old,  are  often  "much  discouraged  be- 
cause of  the  way  ?"  Yes,  doubtless,  there  are  some  of 
you  who  can  say  with  the  Psalmist,  "  I  had  fainted, 
unless  I  had  believed  to  see  the  goodness  of  the  Lord,  in 
the  land  of  the  living."  Doubtless,  there  are  many  who 
even  with  this  source  of  consolation,  are  still  continually 
distressed  by  the  little  spirituality  of  heart  and  life  to 
which  you  have  attained.  Your  daily  feeling  is  that 
you  are  still  so  worldly,  so  cold,  so  indifferent  to  the  God 
and  Saviour  of  your  soul,  that  amid  the  upbraidings  of 
your  own  conscience,  and  the  unceasing  attacks  of  your 
spiritual  enemies,  this  is  to  you,  indeed,  a  "  wreary  world," 
and  a  toilsome  journey,  and  ofttimes  do  you  wish  its 
labours  over,  and  yourself  at  home.  Yet,  weary  as  is 
the  way,  beloved  brethren,  every  mile  of  it  must  be  trod- 
den, and  your  anxiety  must  be  rather  to  quit  you  like 
men,  and  be  strong;  to  "endure  hardness  as  a  good 
soldier  of  Jesus  Christ,"  than  to  be  in  haste  for  the  rest 
which  remaineth  for  you  at  that  journey's  end. 

Do  you  ask  how  you  shall  be  enabled  to  achieve  this? 
Let  the  words  of  the  text  point  out  your  remedy.  There 
is  not  only  a  hiding-place  and  a  covert,  but  a  rock,  and 
a  great  rock,  in  this  weary  land.  You  have  already 
found  it  a  hiding-place,  but  perhaps  you  have  contented 
yourselves  with  coming  just  within  the  range  of  its 
shadow  ;  you  have  been  satisfied  with  escaping  from  the 
burning  beams  of  God's  wrath,  and  the  fiery  darts  of  the 
wicked  one ;  but  you  are  still  only  within  the  extremest 
limit  of  this  overshadowing  rock.  Be  persuaded,  then, 
no  longer  to  rest  and  settle  there ;  pray  and  strive  and 
labour  to  advance.  You  may  be  partially  sheltered 


THE  CHRISTIAN'S  REFUGE.  3]^ 

where  you  are,  jou  may  even  be  safe  where  you  are ; 
but  as  you  draw  further  and  further  within  the  Rock  of 
your  salvation,  you  will  find  an  increase  of  its  sheltering 
peace  and  comfort,  which  you  now  but  little  know. 
There  are  recesses  in  that  Rock  into  which  you  are 
specially  invited;  and  the  closer  you  draw,  the  more 
boldly  you  advance,  the  more  welcome,  the  more  happy, 
the  more  blessed  shall  you  be.  There  are  veins  of  ore 
in  that  Rock  sufficient  to  enrich  ten  thousand  worlds,  for 
the  Word  of  the  living  God  has  called  them  "  the  un- 
searchable riches  of  Christ;"  but  they  will  not  enrich 
you  if  you  keep  at  a  distance  from  them ;  you  must 
work  the  mine,  you  must  dig  the  ore,  you  must,  by 
prayer  and  faith,  appropriate  it,  make  it  your  own,  use 
it,  enjoy  it,  live  by  it  and  upon  it,  or  you  derive  not 
half  the  comforts  and  consolations  which  are  treasured 
up  for  you  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

Seek  these  more  constantly,  more  prayerfully,  more 
earnestly ;  they  will  amply  repay  the  search ;  you  shall 
find  in  them  wealth  which  neither  Satan  nor  conscience 
can  disturb,  joy  which  shall  gladden  every  stage  of  the 
journey,  and  yet,  throughout  it  all,  shall  be  only  in  the 
bud,  but  shall  break  forth  into  an  everlasting  fruit-bearing 
at  the  journey's  end. 

Come  then,  this  day,  and  commemorate  the  blessings 
of  which  we  have  now  spoken ;  draw  near  with  thankful 
and  rejoicing  hearts  to  the  table  of  him  who  loved  you 
and  gave  himself  for  you.  Do  not  reject  his  invitation  ; 
remember  it  was  purchased  by  the  life's  blood  of  him 
who  offers  it.  Do  not  refuse  to  meet  him  here,  whom 
you  hope  to  meet  and  live  with  in  heaven.  Do  not  turn 
your  back  upon  a  blessing,  which  love,  boundless  as 
eternity  itself,  has  purchased  for  you  ;  but  draw  near  with 


6 
22  THE  CHRISTIAN'S  REFUGE. 

faith,  and  take  this  holy  Sacrament  to  your  comfort,  and 
like  the  beloved  apostle,  sit  down  this  day  under  the 
shadow  of  the  tree  of  life,  and  eat  and  live  for  ever. 
And  may  God  grant  that  we  all,  who  are  partakers  of  the 
symbols  here,  may  together  partake  of  the  marriage 
supper  of  the  Lamb  in  the  kingdom  of  our  Father ! 


SERMON  III. 

CHRIST— THE  FULNESS  OF   THE  BE- 
LIEVER. 


EPHESIANS  i.  22,  23.  (PART.) 

The  head  over  all  things  to  the  Church,  which  is  his  hody,  the 
fulness  of  him  that  filleth  all  in  all. 

THE  great  and  blessed  truth  revealed  to  us  in  the  text 
is  not  confined  to  this  single  passage  of  the  Divine  word: 
it  is  to  be  found  propounded  again  and  again ;  in  the 
Epistle  from  which  the  text  is  taken ;  in  the  First  Epistle 
to  the  Corinthians;  and  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Colossians 
— sufficient  evidence  of  its  great  and  remarkable  promi- 
nency in  the  teaching  of  the  Spirit,  and  of  its  deep  im- 
portance to  the  people  of  God.  But  then,  brethren,  it  is 
to  the  people  of  God  alone  that  it  speaks.  It  contains 
nothing  for  the  world  ;  the  nominal  Christian,  the  mere 
outward  member  of  our  truly  scriptural  Church,  the  man 
attached  to  it  by  birth,  or  by  accident,  will  find  nothing 
in  this  high  subject  to  gratify  his  curiosity,  or  to  delight 
his  taste,  or  even,  I  fear,  to  enlarge  his  knowledge;  ex- 
cept it  is  by  showing  him  that  there  are  great  and  im- 
portant truths  in  the  religion  he  professes,  of  which  he 
is  at  present  utterly  ignorant ;  for  the  blessed  declarations 
before  us  will  be  to  him  a  sealed  treasure,  while  to  the 
spiritually  enlightened  mind  they  are  as  plain,  and  as 
influential,  as  any  to  be  found  in  the  revelation  of  God. 

33 


34 


CHRIST  THE  FULNESS 


The  truth  in  the  text  is  conveyed  by  a  very  simple 
metaphor,  which  represents  the  Church  of  God,  i.  e., 
not  merely  our  own  national  Church,  which  forms, 
however,  we  trust,  one  of  its  most  beauteous  members, 
but  the  whole  family  of  believers  throughout  all  time; 
those  now  in  heaven,  and  those  now  on  earth,  and  those 
who  shall  follow  us,  and  fill  up  our  places  in  the  battle 
when  we  are  enjoying  the  repose  of  the  victory.  It  re- 
presents, I  say,  the  whole  Church  of  God  so  composed, 
under  the  similitude  of  one  human  body,  of  which  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  is  the  one  and  only  spiritual  Head. 
It  then  declares  that  this  body,  the  Church,  forms  the 
fulness,  or  the  glory  of  Christ,  who  "filleth  all  in  all." 

My  intention  is,  with  God's  help,  to  consider  these 
great  truths  as  developed  in  the  text,  under  two  distinct 
jeads. 

I.  The  nature  of  Christ's  relationship  to  the  Church, 
and  his  employment. 

II.  The  nature  of  the  Church's  relationship  to  Christ, 
and  her  exceeding  great  and  precious  privileges. 

I.  Then,  Christ  is  the  "Head  over  all  things  to  the 
Church,"  and  "  filleth  all  in  all." 

When  the  apostle  declares  that  Christ  is  the  Head  of 
the  Church,  doubtless,  his  first  and  most  obvious  inten- 
tion is  to  mark  his  pre-eminence,  to  demonstrate,  as  he 
has  elsewhere  declared,  that  "  God  hath  highly  exalted 
him,  and  given  him  a  name  which  is  above  every  name; 
that  at  the  name  of  Jesus  every  knee  should  bow,  of 
things  in  heaven,  and  things  in  earth,  and  things  under 
the  earth ;  and  that  every  tongue  should  confess  that 
Jesus  Christ  is  Lord,  to  the  glory  of  God  the  Father." 
(Phil.  ii.  9 — 11.)  But  this  is  far  from  being  all  that  is 
involved  in  the  relationship.  And  this  the  same  apostle 
distinctly  illustrates  when  speaking  of  Christ  as  the  Head, 


OF  THE  BELIEVER. 


35 


in  the  Epistle  to  the  Colossians,  he  immediately  adds, 
"  From  which  all  the  body  by  joints  and  bands  having 
nourishment  ministered,  and  knit  together,  increaseth 
with  the  increase  of  God.'5 

It  is  clear,  then,  from  this  passage,  "  having  nourish- 
ment ministered,"  that  it  refers  to  Christ  as  our  Head, 
not  only  in  point  of  pre-eminence,  but  in  point  of  in- 
fluence. For  as  in  the  human  body  all  the  nerves  spring 
from  the  brain,  and  yet  communicate  life  and  feeling  to 
every  part  of  the  body,  down  even  to  the  smallest  and 
remotest  member,  so  all  spiritual  life,  and  all  spiritual 
feeling  in  the  Church  of  God,  take  their  rise  from  one 
great  and  glorified  Head;  and  spread  downward  from 
that  source  of  influence  into  the  heart  of  every  individual 
member. 

Observe,  not  only  the  doctrinal  truth,  but  the  practical 
lesson,  which  immediately  flows  from  this  important  fact. 
Until  you  are  spiritually  united  by  a  true  and  living  faith 
to  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  you  must  inevitably  be  as  desti- 
tute of  spiritual  life  and  feeling,  as  a  human  body,  from 
which  the  head  has  been  separated,  would  be  destitute 
of  all  sense  and  of  all  motion.  While,  on  the  other  hand, 
when  by  a  living  and  obeying  faith  (for  none  other  is  a 
living  faith)  you  are  united  to  our  adorable  Redeemer; 
when  you  have  been  led  to  choose  him  for  your  portion, 
to  accept  him  in  all  his  offices  for  your  full  and  sufficient 
Saviour,  casting  your  soul  unreservedly  upon  the  promises 
of  God  in  Christ  Jesus;  you  become  spiritually  members 
of  his  body,  bone  of  his  bone,  flesh  of  his  flesh.  Your 
"  life  is  hid  with  Christ  in  God."  All  that  you  need  of 
strength,  of  light,  of  grace,  of  guidance,  are  treasured  up 
for  you  in  him,  and  are  to  be  daily  drawn  out  by  you 
from  him,  according  to  your  daily  wants,  your  daily  sor- 
rows, and  your  daily  temptations,  and  trials. 


36 


CHRIST  THE  FULNESS 


We  have  said  that  this  is  the  practical  lesson  to  be  de- 
duced from  the  scriptural  relationship  of  the  Redeemer  to 
the  Church  which  he  has  purchased  with  his  own  blood. 
Now  let  us  mark  the  great  encouragement  to  this  lesson 
which  may  be  drawn  from  the  employment  of  the  Re- 
deemer, adverted  to  in  the  text.  He  "  filleth  all  in  all." 

The  true  and  sincere  followers  of  God  among  you 
well  know  your  own  emptiness.  You  are  making  larger 
discoveries  of  it  every  day  and  every  hour.  When  you 
would  do  good,  evil  is  present  with  you.  When  you 
should  enter  into  good  resolutions,  you  are  deficient  in 
the  will  to  do  so,  and  when  you  have  entered  into  them, 
you  are  destitute  of  the  power  of  accomplishing  them ; 
and  all  this  is  matter  of  personal  and  individual  expe- 
rience, just  as  certainly  as  of  the  Divine  declaration, 
"  Without  me,  ye  can  do  nothing." 

Under  this  feeling  then,  of  utter  incapacity,  look  up- 
ward to  your  great  and  glorified  Head,  and  as  you  have 
already  heard  the  nature  of  his  relationship  to  his  Church, 
hear  also  for  your  encouragement  and  consolation,  the 
nature  of  his  employment,  that  "  he  filleth  all  in  all." 

What  a  delightful  view  does  this  present  to  the  Chris- 
tian of  the  Christian's  Lord  !  He  is  for  ever  employed  in 
filling  up  all  graces,  all  wants,  all  imperfections,  in  all  his 
members,  by  the  prevailing  power  of  his  intercession,  by 
the  continual  outpourings  of  his  Spirit,  by  the  constant 
impartings  of  himself.  To  make  this  still  more  plain; 
you  possess  an  understanding,  a  will,  an  imagination,  a 
memory,  and  a  heart;  all  these,  then,  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  has  undertaken,  from  the  character  in  which  the 
text  portrays  him,  to  fill  even  to  overflowing;  your  un- 
derstanding with  spiritual  thoughts,  your  will  with  hea- 
venly desires,  your  memory  with  holy  recollections,  your 


OF  THE  BELIEVER. 


37 


imagination  with  glorious  anticipations,  your  heait  with 
himself. 

It  is  true,  that  to  effect  this  great  work  in  every  indi- 
vidual member  of  his  blessed  body,  much  time,  much 
teaching,  and,  in  many  instances,  much  affliction,  much 
trial,  will  be  needed,  but  it  is  not  the  less  true  that  it  shall 
be  done. 

It  may  be,  that  some  whom  I  am  now  addressing,  are 
thinking,  while  they  hear  these  great  and  important 
truths,  Would  that  I  might  indeed  hope  that  this  could 
be  verified  in  my  own  case  !  But  I  have  been  long  seek- 
ing the  truth,  long  desiring  to  know  more  and  more  of 
God,  and  of  my  duty;  and  yet  I  feel  as  if  with  me  the 
great  work  were  for  ever  to  be  recommenced;  there  is 
scarcely  any  perceptible  advance ;  there  is  almost  as  little 
of  spiritual  life  now  within  my  heart  as  there  ever  was, 
and  yet,  I  greatly  fear,  as  much  as  there  ever  will  be. 

Upon  this  point,  Christian  brethren,  you  are  not  always 
the  most  unprejudiced  judges;  while  the  many  are  apt 
to  determine  far  too  favourably  in  their  own  cause,  there 
will  always  be  a  few  of  the  real  children  of  God,  who 
will  write  bitter  things  against  themselves,  which  the 
Lord  hath  not  written,  and  look  gloomily  and  despond- 
ingly  upon  their  own  case,  while  the  Spirit  of  God  is 
speaking  peace  and  offering  strong  consolation. 

Now  as  Christian  ministers,  there  are  few  duties  more 
delightful  than  to  offer  the  encouragements  with  which 
our  Master  has  intrusted  us  for  the  comfort  of  such  souls 
as  these ;  to  send  them,  by  God's  help,  forward  on  their 
Christian  course  contented  and  rejoicing.  We  would  say 
then  to  you,  and  such  as  you, — and  we  would  not  be 
deterred  from  saying  it,  by  the  knowledge  of  that  fatal 
chemistry  by  which  the  devil  can  distil  the  strongest 
poison  from  the  sweetest  flowers  that  grow  in  the  garden 

4 


33  CHRIST  THE  FULNESS 

of  God, — we  would  say  to  you,  the  Saviour  whom  you 
serve,  and  who  has  reconciled  you  to  your  Heavenly 
Father,  is  engaged  to  "fill  all  in  all;"  to  fill  up  all  wants 
in  all  his  members,  to  support  every  broken  reed,  to  kin- 
dle into  a  flame  every  smoking  flax;  therefore  you,  al- 
though the  feeblest,  have  no  cause  to  despond;  or  you, 
although  the  youngest,  the  weakest,  the  most  empty, 
have  no  cause  to  despair.  As  long  as  there  is  on  your 
part,  humble  and  holy  walking,  sincere  and  faithful  seek- 
ing, earnest  and  conscientious  acting  according  to  the 
light  and  grace  which  God  has  given  you,  so  long  will 
there  be,  on  his  part,  a  fulfilment  of  this  most  blessed  of 
his  offices,  the  strengthening  and  refreshing  of  your  souls, 
the  guiding  and  the  guarding  of  your  steps,  the  filling  up 
of  your  manifold  deficiencies. 

How  encouraging  is  the  thought,  how  blessed  the 
.view  w7hich  this  consideration  presents  us  with.  "To 
you  who  believe,"  says  an  apostle,  "Christ  is  precious;" 
but  how  precious  even  an  apostle  could  not  say.  You 
love  him  now,  because  he  calls  you,  justifies  you,  sancti- 
fies you.  You  will  love  him  more  as  time  wears  on, 
and  as  you  advance  in  your  Christian  life  and  character; 
for  as  a  Saviour  you  will  know  him  more;  and  to  know 
him  is  to  love  him.  You  will  love  him  still  better  at 
the  last  great  day,  when  time  shall  be  no  longer,  because 
you  will  hear  from  his  own  lips  the  sentence  which  shall 
pronounce  you  blessed.  But  when  all  these  are  over, 
when  there  are  no  more  sins  to  pardon,  no  more  pollu- 
tions to  cleanse,  no  more  sentences  to  pass,  what  will 
there  be  for  ever  and  for  ever  to  draw  forth  your  feelings, 
your  gratitude,  your  love?  There  will  still  be  this 
blessed  relationship  in  which  we  are  permitted  to  view 
him  even  here,  "Head  over  all  things  to  his  Church." 
The  same  relationship  of  which  you  have  now  begun 


OF  THE  BELIEVER.  39 

to  taste  the  blessedness  and  the  joy,  but  then  grown  np, 
matured,  and  perfected;  leaving  him  amidst  the  fulness 
of  your  perfections,  nothing  to  fill  up  in  you;  and  leav- 
ing you  amidst  the  fulness  of  your  fruition,  nothing  to 
desire  from  him.  For  he  who  is  now  employed  in  fill- 
ing up  all  in  all,  shall  then  have  filled  up  all  in  all. 
The  work  will  be  for  ever  over,  but  the  relationship  will 
for  ever  remain.  Oh,  most  perfect  and  blessed  accom- 
plishment of  our  Lord's  dying  petition,  "  That  they  all 
may  be  one,  as  thou,  Father,  art  in  me,  and  I  in  thee, 
that  they  also  may  be  one  in  us." 

We  proceed,  Secondly,  To  consider  the  relationship 
in  which  the  Church  stands  to  Christ,  and  her  exceed- 
ing great  and  precious  privileges. 

The  Church  is,  as  we  have  seen,  described  in  the  text, 
in  the  very  remarkable  character  of  Christ's  body  and  of 
Christ's  fulness;  "the  fulness  of  him  who  filleth  all 
in  ail." 

How  little  does  the  world,  how  little  does  even  the 
Church  of  God,  think  of  its  own  privileges  and  honour! 
After  all  the  great  and  glorious  things  spoken  of  the 
Saviour,  that  this  little  flock,  this  poor  despised  company, 
composed  of  many  of  the  weakest  men,  and  the  feeblest 
women,  and  the  most  helpless  children  ;  and  treated  as 
the  offscouring  of  all  things,  the  very  scorn  and  ridicule 
of  a  self-sufficient  and  ignorant  world ;  should  be  de- 
clared by  the  immutable  Word  of  God  to  be  the  Saviour's 
body  and  the  Saviour's  fulness,  his  honour,  and  his  glory, 
and  his  bride !  So  completely  his  purchased  possession, 
the  prize  for  which  he  was  content  to  pour  forth  his  life's 
blood  like  water  from  the  cross,  that  if  it  were  possible 
that  the  gates  of  hell  could  prevail  against  her,  so  that 
she  could  perish,  he  would  be  robbed  of  his  reward.  If 
David  could  say  of  the  mere  type  of  the  spiritual  Church, 


4()  CHRIST  THE  FULNESS 

"  Very  excellent  things  are  spoken  of  thee,  thou  city  of 
God,"  what  ought  the  Christian  to  feel  when  consider- 
ing the  language  in  which  that  Church  is  itself  described  ? 
But  this  we  conceive  to  be  one  of  the  great  faults  of 
Christians  at  the  present  day ;  they  look  at  the  Word  of 
God,  and  at  the  promises  of  God,  as  applying  to  them- 
selves as  individuals,  and  do  not  endeavour  to  take  de- 
light in  them  as  applicable  to  the  Church  as  a  body, 
and  to  themselves  as  members  of  that  body.  What  a 
powerful  incentive  to  Christian  concord  and  Christian 
unity  is  thus  destroyed !  What  an  additional  bond  of 
love  would  it  be,  how  much  more  would  exist  of  that 
Christian  sympathy  which  rejoices  with  those  who  re- 
joice, and  which  weeps  with  those  who  weep,  and  which 
delights,  in  bearing  one  another's  burdens,  and  so  fulfil- 
ling the  law  of  Christ,  if  we  more  prayerfully  and  more 
constantly  cultivated  the  habit  of  looking  upon  ourselves 
and  all  our  fellow-worshippers  as  members  of  one  re- 
deemed family,  one  mystical  body,  whose  head  is  Christ! 

But  even  this  important  lesson  is  not  all  that  we  might 
derive  from  keeping  the  scriptural  view  of  the  subject 
continually  in  our  sight.  There  are  two  peculiarly  en- 
couraging deductions  which  may  be  drawn  from  it  for 
the  encouragement  of  that  class  which  I  have  already 
addressed  ;  you  who  fear,  that  notwithstanding  every 
effort  of  watchfulness  and  prayer,  you  shall  never  arrive, 
in  Christian  graces,  at  the  stature  of  the  fulness  of  Christ; 
and  you,  who  have  equal  doubts  and  fears,  lest  you 
should  never  be  admitted  into  the  presence  of  Christ. 

You,  then,  who  fear  that  you  shall  never  attain  to  the 
full  developement  of  the  Christian  character — if  the  view 
which  we  have  already  taken  of  the  employment  of  the 
Redeemer,  in  filling  up  the  measure  of  his  people,  be 
not  sufficient  to  assure  you — consider  this,  that  the  ful- 


OF  THE  BELIEVER.  £± 

ness  of  Christ,  his  very  glory  itself,  is  actually  made  to 
consist  of  every  member  grown  up  to  that  fulness  of 
stature  which  God  has  appointed  him. 

In  passing  through  the  world,  we  are  constantly  led 
to  observe  the  great  disparity,  not  only  between  the 
natural  endowments  and  the  adventitious  advantages, 
but  between  the  spiritual  gifts  and  graces  of  those,  who 
we  cannot  doubt  are  equally  sincere,  and  equally  among 
the  true  people  of  God  :  some,  for  instance7  possessing 
high,  very  high  degrees  of  knowledge,  which  are  not 
vouchsafed  to  others ;  and  we  are  sometimes  tempted  to 
wonder  how  it  is  possible  that  Christians,  differing  so 
widely  in  their  spiritual  stature  now,  shall  all  be  equally 
happy,  and  all  be  united  in  the  same  heaven  hereafter. 
The  view,  then,  which  we  derive  from  this  portion  of 
our  text  clears  up  the  mystery.  If  the  Church  be  indeed 
the  body  of  Christ,  all  these  differences  and  disparities 
of  growth  have  evidently  been  foreseen  and  provided 
for ;  and  on  the  last  great  day,  when  the  body  shall  have 
grown  up  to  its  perfection,  and  all  the  members  of  that 
body  shall  be  gathered  to  their  glorified  Head,  we  shall 
no  longer  wonder  at  the  disproportions.  Every,  even 
the  weakest  and  smallest  of  the  company  of  true  believers, 
will  find  his  place  in  that  perfect  body,  though  each  will 
differ  from  the  other ;  and  it  will  then  be  seen  that  each 
has  attained  just  those  proportions  which  were  necessary 
to  the  perfect  symmetry  of  the  body  of  Christ,  and  to 
that  place  in  the  body  which  each  was  appointed  to  fill. 
But  let  not  these  considerations,  which  are  intended  to 
encourage  the  desponding,  be  perverted  to  the  content- 
ment of  the  indolent,  or  the  self-satisfied  Christian.  It 
is  only  when  you  have  used,  and  are  using,  all  "  diligence 
to  make  your  calling  and  election  sure,"  that  you  can 
take  the  slightest  encouragement  from  declarations  such 

4* 


42  CHRIST  THE  FULNESS 

as  these.  The  very  fact  that  you  are  ceasing  to  labour, 
to  strive,  or  to  pray,  would  be  among  the  most  con- 
vincing proofs  that  you  have  neither  part  nor  lot  in  the 
matter;  for  that  grace  of  God  which  is  never  withheld 
from  the  faithful  prayer  of  the  weakest  believer,  will  never 
be  extended  to  the  self-satisfied,  the  careless,  or  the  sloth- 
ful professor. 

Lastly,  to  show  that  if  you  are  living  a  life  of  holy 
and  devoted  obedience  to  God,  springing  from  a  simple 
reliance  upon  all  that  Christ  has  done,  and  is  now  doing, 
for  your  salvation,  your  fears  of  not  being  finally  admitted 
into  his  presence  are  utterly  vain. 

If  the  Church  be  the  body  of  Christ,  then  must  every 
one  of  its  true  members,  whether  great  or  small,  be 
present  on  that  day,  when  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  "  shall 
see  of  the  travail  of  his  soul  and  be  satisfied ;"  on  that 
day,  when  "  he  shall  present  it  to  himself,  a  glorious 
church,  not  having  spot  or  wrinkle,  or  any  such  thing, 
but  holy  and  without  blemish."  If  in  the  natural  body, 
the  head  cannot  say  even  to  the  feet,  I  have  no  need  of 
you;  then  neither  in  the  spiritual  body  will  Christ  say 
to  the  weakest  of  his  children,  I  have  no  need  of  thee. 
Every  soul  that  is  here  converted  to  himself,  every 
individual  engaged  by  a  life  of  holiness,  in  living  to  him, 
is  viewed  by  him  as  one  stone  more  placed  in  the  spiri- 
tual temple,  as  one  member  more  added  to  its  body. 
And  until  all  the  members  be  added,  and  unless  all 
the  members  be  preserved,  the  glory  of  Christ  would  be 
imperfect,  his  body  incomplete.  If,  then,  you  are  the 
very  lowest  and  most  inconsiderable  of  all  the  spiritual 
members  of  the  Church  of  Christ  on  earth,  the  salvation 
of  your  single  soul  is  as  necessary  to  the  perfect  glorifica- 
tion of  the  Saviour  as  the  salvation  of  the  most  advanced 
apostle  or  prophet  who  ever  lived;  yea,  even  as  the  re- 


OF  THE  BELIEVER. 


43 


clemption  of  a  world.  For,  if  one  infant  child  of  God 
were  wanting,  Jesus  Christ  could  not  be  full,  since  he 
has  declared  that  the  Church  is  his  fulness,  and  as  a 
true  and  living  member  of  that  Church,  even  that  child 
must  help  to  make  up  that  fulness.  The  glory  of  heaven 
would  not  content  the  Saviour  if  the  humblest  member 
of  his  body  were  not  there.  Therefore,  even  during  the 
days  of  his  flesh,  we  find  him  praying,  "Father,  I  will 
that  they  also  whom  thou  hast  given  me,  be  with  me 
where  I  am."  And  again,  "This  is  the  Father's  will, 
that  of  all  which  he  hath  given  me,  I  should  lose  nothing, 
but  should  raise  it  up  again  at  the  last  day."  And  again, 
"  It  is  not  the  will  of  your  heavenly  Father,  that  one  of 
these  litlle  ones  should  perish."  As  soon  would  a  mortal 
man  submit  willingly  to  be  torn  limb  from  limb,  as  that 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  would  consent  to  lose  one  inmate 
of  his  blessed  family,  one  member  of  his  body,  one  jewel 
of  his  crown. 

May  the  Spirit  of  our  God  bestow  abundantly  upon  all 
of  us  the  comfort  of  these  soul-encouraging  views,  of 
which  the  Word  of  our  God  so  frequently  and  so  largely 
predicates.  That  he  may  do  so,  beloved  Christian  breth- 
ren, accustom  yourselves  often  to  dwell  prayerfully  and 
gratefully  upon  those  blessed  truths  of  which  we  have 
now  spoken :  and  let  the  eye  of  faith  be  daily  looking 
forward  to  that  glorious  day  when  they  shall  all  be 
realized  :  when  all  the  component  parts  of  that  colossal 
body  of  which  Christ  is  the  head,  shall  be  gathered  from 
the  four  winds,  and  from  one  end  of  heaven  to  the  other, 
and  shall  all  meet  together  once  and  for  ever,  in  his 
blessed  and  glorious  presence.  When,  at  the  voice  of 
the  archangel,  which  is  the  trump  of  God,  all  those  who 
have  departed  this  life  in  his  faith  and  fear — many  whom 
we  have  known,  and  some  whom  we  have  dearly  and 


44 


CHRIST  THE  FULNESS  OF  THE  BELIEVER. 


tenderly  loved,  all  true  believers  of  every  age  and  country 
and  kindred  and  tongue,  the  profoundest  sages  of  Chris- 
tian antiquity,  the  helpless  and  ignorant  bahe  who  died 
yesterday — shall  alike  constitute  the  parts  of  but  one 
beautiful  and  perfect  body;  as  the  stones  of  one  vast 
temple,  which,  however  different  in  their  dimensions, 
each  fills  the  niche  appropriated  to  itself,  and  each, 
whether  small  or  great,  ajdds  in  equal  proportion  to  the 
beauty  and  the  grandeur  of  the  whole :  on  that  great  and 
coming  day,  may  it  be  found  that  of  all  who  now  wor- 
ship with  us  in  the  earthly  temples  of  our  God  none  may 
be  absent,  none  may  be  excluded  from  that  spiritual 
edifice,  which  has  been  more  than  five  thousand  years  in 
building,  and  which,  when  completed,  shall  endure 
through  all  the  ages  of  eternity! 


SERMON  IV. 

THE  ALMOST  CHRISTIAN. 


ACTS  xxvi.  28. 
Almost  thou  persuadest  me  to  be  a  Christian. 

IN  speaking  to  you  upon  these  words,  it  is  not  my  in- 
tention to  refer  at  all  to  the  narrative  in  which  they  occur, 
but  to  consider  them  simply  as  the  declaration  of  a  worldly 
man,  that  he  was  almost  persuaded  to  be  a  Christian,  and 
to  deduce  from  it  this  important  fact,  that  what  was  the 
case  with  Agrippa,  must  be  the  case  with  others,  may  be 
the  case  with  us.  It  is  therefore  deeply  important,  as  St. 
Paul  says,  "to  examine  ourselves,  whether  we  be  in  the 
faith,"  lest,  after  years  of  profession,  of  church-going,  of 
sermons,  and  of  sacraments,  any  of  us  may  be  found  to 
have  come  short  of  it,  any  of  us  may  be  discovered,  at 
the  last  great  day  of  account,  when  ministers  and  people 
shall  again  be  assembled,  to  have  been  only  almost, 
while  we  believed  ourselves  to  have  been  altogether 
Christians. 

The  great  difficulties  in  the  subject  before  us  are  these; 
on  the  one  hand,  to  speak  with  sufficient  plainness  to 
penetrate  the  disguises  and  the  deceits  of  the  proverbially 
deceitful  natural  heart;  and  on  the  other,  to  avoid  dis- 
tressing the  tender  consciences  of  those  real  children  of 
God,  who  are  the  most  likely  to  take  to  themselves  the 
45 


45  THE  ALMOST  CHRISTIAN. 

very  warnings  and  cautions  which  least  of  all  apply  to 
them. 

May  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God  be  present  with  us,  help- 
ing us  to  unveil  the  mere  professor  of  religion,  and  to  lay 
open  his  heart  to  his  own  sight  and  his  own  knowledge; 
arid  at  the  same  time  to  prevent  those  who  are  really  in 
earnest  in  this  great  and  blessed  work  from  being  cast 
clown  by  the  sight  of  its  difficulties.,  or  dismayed  by  the 
awful  thought,  that  many  who  appear  to  have  set  their 
foot  on  the  threshold  of  heaven,  shall  never  enter  within 
its  everlasting  gates. 

I  shall  begin  by  endeavouring  to  distinguish  the  class 
whom  I  would  address  as  almost  Christians.  First,  it  is 
evident  that  I  do  not  refer  to  those  who  are  living  in  a 
course  of  habitual  and  notorious  sin;  they  are  so  far  from 
being  almost  Christians,  that  despite  their  baptism  and 
their  name,  they  are  much  nearer  altogether  Heathen, 
"aliens  from  the  commonwealth  of  Israel,  without  hope 
and  without  God." 

It  is  evident,  again,  I  do  not  speak  of  those  who,  with" 
out  any  gross  delinquencies,  are  living  lives  of  careless 
thoughtlessness,  to  whom  religion  is  at  best  but  a  Sunday 
occupation,  and  who,  if  they  have  never  had  a  doubt 
upon  the  subject,  have  never  had  either  a  scriptural  hope, 
or  a  holy  fear.  These  clearly  cannot  even  be  almost 
such  persons  as  Agrippa  spake  of  being,  and  as  St.  Paul, 
through  Divine  grace,  really  was. 

When,  therefore,  I  speak  of  you  who  are  almost  per- 
suaded to  be  Christians,  I  speak  of  you  who  have  ad- 
vanced as  far  beyond  the  two  classes  to  whom  I  have 
already  alluded,  as  you  have  fallen  short  of  that  into 
which  I  trust  the  free  and  sovereign  grace  of  God  will 
one  day  bring  you.  It  is  to  you  I  speak,  and  that  you 
may  be  led  to  know,  each  for  himself,  whether  you  be- 


THE  ALMOST  CHRISTIAN.  ^ 

long  to  the  class  to  which  I  refer,  I  shall  endeavour  to 
point  out  to  you,  with  all  plainness  and  sincerity,  those 
delicate  and  yet  important  shades  of  distinction  which 
exist  between  the  almost  Christian  and  the  wholly  and 
entirely  Christian;  earnestly  beseeching  you  not  to  apply 
the  description  to  your  neighbours,  but  to  yourself,  to  ask 
upon  each  point  that  passes  in  review  before  you,  "  Lord, 
is  it  I?" 

The  almost  Christian,  then,  is  one  who  has  advanced 
to  a  certain  length  upon  all  the  great  and  leading  charac- 
teristics which  distinguish  the  real  people  of  God  from  the 
people  of  the  world.  These  characteristics  are — 

I.  The  enlightening  of  the  understanding   and  the 
conscience. 

II.  The  converting  of  the  will  and  the  affections. 

III.  The  reforming  of  the  life  and  conversation. 

First,  then,  the  almost  Christian  is  one  who  has  ad- 
vanced very  far  in  the  enlightening  of  the  understanding 
and  the  conscience.  With  regard  to  the  understanding, 
it  is  difficult  to  say  how  far  we  may  not  advance  upon 
this  great  characteristic  of  the  children  of  God,  and  yet 
have  no  portion  with  them  of  his  Spirit.  From  frequently 
hearing  the  truths  of  the  Gospel  plainly  stated,  you  may 
Jearn  to  understand  them,  to  talk  of  them,  to  enter  into 
all  the  shades  of  doctrine,  to  know  to  the  most  minute 
article  of  a  creed,  all  that  is  orthodox,  and  all  that  is  hete- 
rodox ;  you  may  be  enabled  to  unfold  the  mysteries  of 
redemption  to  others,  and  to  dwell  upon  the  beauties  of 
its  wondrous  scheme,  and  the  excellencies  of  its  salvation, 
till  those  who  hear  you  are  astonished  at  the  clearness  of 
your  views,  and  the  depth  of  your  Christian  experience. 
You  may  go  further  than  this;  you  maybe  perfectly 
convinced  of  the  truth  of  all  that  you  advance;  of  the 
certaintv  that  none  con  be  saved  but  those  who  cordially 


48  THE  ALMOST  CHRISTIAN. 

and  entirely  embrace  the  doctrines  of  eternal  life  which 
you  so  well  understand  ;  and  yet,  with  all  this  illumina- 
tion of  the  understanding,  you  may  never  actually  em- 
brace these  truths  yourself. 

As  with  the  understanding,  so  with  the  conscience ; 
your  conscience  may  enjoy  perfect  peace,  the  last  best 
gift  of  God's  good  Spirit,  when  built  upon  a  right  founda- 
tion (even  the  simple  reliance  upon  the  blood  of  Christ); 
but  you  may  enjoy  a  counterfeit  of  this  peace,  which 
may  only  be  the  gift  of  the  spirit  of  carnal  security,  or 
the  spirit  of  deadly  slumber.  And  as  you  may  easily 
attain  to  peace  of  conscience  in  an  unrenewed  state  of 
heart,  so  may  you  in  the  same  state  attain  to  trouble  and 
distress  of  conscience,  which  are  perhaps  even  less  am- 
biguous evidences  of  a  work  of  the  Spirit  than  peace 
itself.  You  may  suffer  under  the  strongest  convictions 
of  sin  without  these  convictions  being  ever  followed  by 
conversion.  After  the  commission  of  some  sins  more 
disgraceful,  or  more  subversive  of  your  worldly  happi- 
ness, your  character,  your  reputation,  or  your  health, 
than  many  others,  you  may  be  visited  with  the  strongest 
compunctions  and  the  deepest  sorrow;  you  may  lament 
your  iniquity  and  your  folly,  and  possess  many  of  the 
true  signs  of  a  genuine  repentance,  and  yet  never  attain 
to  genuine  repentance. 

There  is  a  remarkable  testimony  to  the  truth  of  this  in 
the  example  of  Cain ;  he  groaned  beneath  the  weight  of 
his  sin  arid  of  God's  disapprobation;-  he  cried  out,  "  My 
punishment  is  greater  than  I  can  bear."  Judas,  again,  is 
another  example;  he  could  find  no  respite  from  the 
honors  of  an  accusing  conscience  but  in  a  self-inflicted 
death.  Yet  these  were  merely  the  natural  feelings  of 
natural  men,  who  were  not  even  almost  Christians; 
there  can  therefore  be  no  doubt,  that  he  who  deserves 


THE  ALMOST  CHRISTIAN. 


49 


that  appellation  may  have  advanced  quite  as  far  as  these, 
and  be  as  utterly  destitute  as  they  were  of  any  portion  of 
saving  grace.  But  perhaps  some  among  you  will  very 
naturally  inquire,  If  this  be  so,  how  am  I  to  discriminate? 
How  am  I,  in  my  own  case,  to  ascertain  whether  the  en- 
lightening of  my  understanding  and  of  my  conscience 
may  not  be  equally  fallacious  with  those  of  whom  I 
have  just  heard;  whether,  after  all,  that  which  I  have 
imagined  to  be  the  light  of  the  Sun  of  Righteousness, 
the  rays  which  beam  from  the  cross  of  the  Redeemer, 
and  have  guided  my  feet  into  the  way  of  peace,  may  not 
be  an  ignis  fatuus,  that  is  merely  seducing  me  to  my 
destruction.  Be  assured  that  God  has  not  left  himself 
without  a  witness,  or  his  people  without  a  guide,  upon 
such  important  points  as  these.  The  enlightening  of  the 
understanding  and  conscience  of  the  true  Christian  differs 
from  that  of  which  I  have  spoken  in  these  important 
particulars;  while  it  lights  it  guides;  it  is  no  barren  light, 
it  makes  the  soul  grow  in  grace,  and  bring  forth  the  fruits 
of  holiness  unto  the  praise  of  God.  It  is  not  only  thus 
an  influential  knowledge,  but  it  is  a  transforming  know- 
ledge,— as  St.  Paul  says,  "We  all,  as  in  a  glass,  behold 
the  glory  of  the  Lord,  and  are  changed  into  the  sam-e 
image.''  This  is  the  invariable  effect  upon  the  heart  of 
the  altogether  Christian ;  he  is  changed  into  some  blessed, 
.'i  I  though  imperfect  resemblance,  of  his  divine  Master. 
But  if,  with  an  increase  of  knowledge,  you  are  sensible 
of  no  increase  of  holiness,  of  humility,  of  self-distrust,  of 
close-walking  with  God;  if,  with  peace  of  conscience, 
you  are  aware  of  no  increase  of  dependence  upon  the 
finished  salvation  of  your  Lord  and  Saviour;  if,  with 
trouble  of  conscience,  you  are  sensible  of  no  increased 
hatred  of  sin,  no  earnest  strivings  against  it,  even  in  its 
most  secret  and  least  suspected  advances;  then,  indeed, 

5 


50 


THE  ALMOST  CHRISTIAN. 


you  have  (he  greatest  possible  cause  of  apprehension  and 
doubt,  lest  your  foundation  be  on  the  sand,  and  your 
superstruction  "  the  wood,  hay,  stubble,"  which  shall  be 
scattered  as  dust  before  the  whirlwind  in  the  great  day 
of  the  Lord. 

The  second  characteristic  which  I  have  mentioned,  as 
invariably  found  in  the  true  people  of  God,  and  the 
counterfeit  of  wrhich  is  not  uncommonly  seen  in  the 
almost  Christian,  is  the  conversion  of  the  will  and  the 
affections. 

In  the  true  people  of  God  the  conversion  of  the  will  is 
thorough  and  entire.  It  is  changed  by  God's  grace, 
drawn  by  the  sweet  but  gentle  influence  of  such  natural 
arguments  as  persuade  without  compulsion ;  for  though 
God  uses  infinite  power,  he  uses  no  violence;  he  sub- 
dues the  will,  he  does  not  compel  it.  He  overcomes  a 
sinner's  prejudices  as  completely  as  he  does  his  resistance. 
He  does  not  force  him  to  an  obedience  painful  and  odious, 
like  the  obedience  of  a  slave,  but  wins  him  to  an  obe- 
dience agreeable  and  delightful,  like  the  obedience  of  a 
son.  He  does  not  bring  him  to  submit  to  God  without, 
at  the  same  time,  teaching  him  that  it  is  his  choicest  hap- 
piness and  his  truest  welfare  to  do  so,  enabling  him  to 
love  the  will  of  God,  and  to  say  from  his  heart,  "  Thy 
commandments  are  not  grievous."  This,  again,  marks 
another  striking  distinction  between  the  real  people  of 
God,  and  the  almost  Christian.  For  you  may  be  led  to 
give  up  many  a  sinful  gratification,  to  attend  to  many  a 
spiritual  duty,  so  that  to  the  eye  of  man  there  may  be  no 
distinction  whatever  between  the  almost  and  altogether 
Christian.  But  how  is  it  to  Him  who  sees  the  heart? 
The  distinction  to  the  eye  of  God  is  as  visible  as  if  no 
outward  act  had  ever  been  influenced,  no  outward  ser- 
vice performed.  He  sees  that  the  very  sin  which  you 


THE  ALMOST  CHRISTIAN. 


51 


relinquish  is  dearer  to  you  than  the  duties  you  profess  to 
practise.  That,  while  spiritual  services  are  tedious  and 
burdensome  to  you,  sinful  pleasures  and  delights  really 
engage  your  hearts,  and  are  as  sweet  and  fascinating  to 
you  as  they  ever  were.  And  yet  with  all  this,  your 
affections  even,  as  well  as  your  wills,  may  be  in  some 
degree  influenced  by  religious  exercises  and  feelings; 
you  may  often  exclaim,  "Would  to  God  that  I  were 
what  I  ought  to  be!  Would  that  I  were  more  con- 
sistent, and  more  devout,  and  more  holy !"  You  may 
often  sigh  to  think  how  much  there  is  in  religion  which 
you  cannot  but  admire,  though  to  which  you  have  never 
attained;  you  may  almost  envy  those  who  are  more  in 
earnest  than  yourself,  and  offer  a  few  faint  and  languid 
aspirations  that  you  may  die  the  death  of  the  righteous, 
and  that  your  last  end  may  be  like  his ;  you  may,  in 
fact,  however  paradoxical  it  may  appear,  wish  yourself 
holy,  and  yet  remain  willingly  sinful ;  you  may  wish 
that  you  were  better,  and  yet  never  take  one  step  to- 
wards amendment.  Oh !  if  heaven  could  be  gained  by 
wishing  for  it,  how  few  would  be  excluded  from  its 
blessed  abodes.  When  you  hear  an  awakening  or  a 
convincing  sermon,  you  may  be  perfectly  unable  to 
resist  its  appeals,  or  to  answer  its  arguments;  when 
eternity  is  set  before  you  with  its  certainty  and  its  near- 
ness, its  delights  or  its  terrors,  you  may  be  so  powerfully 
affected  by  it,  that  it  may  remain  upon  your  memory, 
and  influence  your  thoughts  and  feelings  for  days  after- 
wards; when  the  love  of  Christ,  and  the  atonement  of 
Christ,  and  the  sufferings  and  the  agonies  of  Christ  are 
dwelt  upon,  you  may  feel  them  to  the  very  ground  of 
your  heart ;  they  may  even  draw  tears  from  your  eyes, 
but  they  may  be  such  feelings  as  have  been  excited,  or 
such  tears  as  you  have  shed  at  many  an  affecting  tragedy, 


52 


THE  ALMOST  CHRISTIAN. 


or  over  many  a  foolish  novel,  the  merely  natural  emo- 
tions of  the  merely  natural  man,  and  evidence  neither  a 
converted  heart  nor  spiritual  affections.  Again,  then, 
mark  the  contrast ;  to  be  altogether  a  Christian  does  not 
depend  in  any  manner  upon  these  transitory  excitements; 
the  true  conversion  of  will  and  affections,  is  a  holy,  a 
constant,  a  calm  and  prayerful  striving  to  render  our  will 
conformable  in  every  point  to  the  Divine  will,  and  to 
bring  every  thought  into  captivity  to  the  obedience  of 
Christ.  The  almost  Christian  never  desires  or  intends 
to  do  this;  if  he  even  prays  that  his  affections  may  be 
drawn  off  from  some  favourite  sin,  he  does  it  as  St. 
Augustine  tells  us  he  did  while  only  almost  a  Christian, 
with  the  mental  reservation  that  God  should  not  do  it 
now ;  that  the  sin  is  too  dear  to  be  given  up  at  present, 
but  that  at  some  more  convenient  season,  or  some  to- 
morrow which  will  never  come,  his  whole  will  shall  be 
conformed  and  whole  affections  given  to  God. 

The  third  point  upon  which  1  have  proposed  to  con- 
sider the  almost  Christian  is,  the  reformation  of  his  life 
and  conversation. 

That  both  these  may  be  to  a  certain  and  very  great 
extent  effected  by  one  who  is  still  in  an  unregenerate 
state,  and  therefore  not  among  the  true  people  of  God,  is 
evident,  not  only  from  common  observation,  but  from 
the  Word  of  God.  Observe,  for  instance,  this  declara- 
tion of  St..  Peter,  "  If  after  they  have  escaped  the  pollu- 
tions of  the  world  through  the  knowledge  of  the  Lord 
and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  they  are  again  entangled 
therein,  and  overcome,  the  latter  end  is  worse  with  them 
than  the  beginning."  It  is  clear  that  the  apostle  does 
not  here  speak  of  the  true  children  of  God,  for  we  know 
that  the  latter  end  with  them  will  not  be  worse  than  the 
beginning,  since  he  who  is  the  author  is  also  the  finisher 


THE  ALMOST  CHRISTIAN. 


53 


of  their  faith,  and  has  promised  "to  keep  that  which 
they  have  committed  to  him  against  that  day."  St. 
Peter  must  therefore  he  delineating  the  precise  class 
whom  we  are  now  considering,  for  he  speaks  of  them  as 
people  who  have  had  a  head  knowledge  of  Christ  Jesus 
the  Lord ;  and  even  more  than  this,  as  people  who  have 
escaped  for  a  time  the  pollutions  of  the  world.  Now 
this  is  just  the  case  with  the  almost  Christian;  he  may 
have  advanced  even  far  in  outward  reformation,  as  well 
as  in  knowledge,  may  have  escaped  the  pollutions  of  the 
world,  and  yet  his  latter  end  may  be  worse  than  his 
beginning.  You  will  observe,  the  apostle  does  not  say 
they  have  escaped  the  pollutions  of  the  heart,  but  of  the 
world  ;  it  is  only  an  outward  work  that  he  is  speaking 
of,  but  this  outward  work  of  reformation  and  amendment, 
may  have  been  a  very  striking  and  obvious  one,  and  yet 
may  have  never  passed  the  boundary  which  divides  the 
almost  from  the  altogether  Christian.  The  motives 
which  influence  the  two  classes,  and  the  spirits  which 
guide  them,  are  wholly  different;  and  thus,  though  the 
converted  man  must  be  a  reformed  man,  the  reformed 
man  may  be  as  wholly  distinct  from  the  converted  man 
in  the  sight  of  God,  as  darkness  from  light.  For  in- 
stance, even  when  the  most  completely  reformed,  you 
may  have  only  exchanged  one  sin  for  another,  a  public 
sin  which  would  disgrace  you  before  men,  for  a  private 
sin,  known  only  to  God;  or  you  may  have  put  away 
many  of  your  sins,  only  to  retain  some  that  are  the 
dearest,  and  most  indispensable;  or  you  may  change 
from  a  life  of  dishonesty  and  deceitfulness  towards  men, 
to  a  life  of  honesty  and  probity;  while  God,  his  honour 
and  his  glory,  are  as  completely  blotted  from  your 
memory  and  your  heart  in  the  latter  slate^  as  in  the 
former.  Do  not  deceive  yourselves  by  imagining,  even 


54  THE  ALMOST  CHRISTIAN. 

(his  must  necessarily  be  the  work  of  the  Spirit  of  God. 
Be  assured,  he  has  no  hand  in  any  thing  so  unscriptural 
and  unholy.  I  believe  that  the  great  assistant  of  this 
kind  of  partial  reformation  is  the  devil.  That  it  is  he 
who  helps  men  to  relinquish  some  sins,  only  that  he 
may  satisfy  their  souls  with  this  miserable  compromise, 
and  bind  their  remaining  sins  upon  their  hearts,  with 
chains  of  iron. 

I  do  not  scruple  to  say,  because  the  whole  tenor  of 
God's  Word  compels  me,  that  you  are  not  in  reality 
nearer  God  in  this  state  of  outward  reformation,  when  it 
extends  no  farther,  which  does  not  influence  the  secret 
conduct,  or  purify  the  thoughts,  or  convert  the  soul,  than 
you  were  while  in  the  most  reckless  course  of  open  pro- 
fligacy :  you  may  imagine  that  you  are  daily  ascending 
higher  and  higher  towards  heaven,  that  the  walls  of  the 
celestial  city  are  within  your  view;  but,  be  assured,  upon 
the  authority  of  God  himself,  that  in  attempting  to  reach 
them  thus,  it  is  writh  the  miserable  certainty  of  finally 
and  irrevocably  falling;  and  that  at  the  very  moment 
when  you  think  that  you  have  risen  the  highest,  and 
attained  the  most  nearly  to  the  heavenly  mansions,  you 
are  only  the  more  certain  of  tumbling  headlong  from  the 
dizzy  height,  and  of  plunging  the  deeper  into  the  very 
lowest  depths  of  hell  beneath. 

My  brethren,  in  concluding  this  important  subject,  I 
would  desire  to  impress  its  importance  upon  you,  by  en- 
forcing a  single  consideration!  You  have  an  eternity 
before  you,  of  which  you  must  shortly  be  partakers;  an 
eternity  which  you  cannot  avoid,  and  out  of  which  there 
will  be  no  escape.  Is  it  not,  then,  of  unutterable  conse- 
quence that  you  should  ascertain  where  you  are  to  spend 
it  ?  Can  any  thing  which  can  engage  your  thoughts  and 
your  reflections  possess  a  thousandth  part  the  same  de- 


THE  ALMOST  CHRISTIAN.  55 

gree  of  interest?  Then  attend  to  me  while  I  remind 
you  of  this  unquestionable  fact,  that,  whoever  you  are, 
whatever  you  are,  whatever  be  your  rank,  whatever  be 
your  station,  you  must  be  either  in  a  state  of  grace,  or  in 
a  state  of  nature ;  and  according  to  this,  when  you  come 
to  die,  you  must  find  yourself  either  in  a  state  of  salva- 
tion or  a  state  of  condemnation.  It  is  the  altogether 
Christian  who  can  alone  be  saved,  the  almost  Christian 
will  as  certainly  be  condemned  as  the  altogether  sinful. 
You  may,  as  it  were,  be  suspended  between  heaven  and 
earth  while  you  live;  to-day,  living  for  one  world,  and 
to-morrow  vibrating  towards  another;  but  you  cannot  be 
suspended  between  heaven  and  hell  when  you  die :  to 
one  or  other,  you  must  assuredly  be  carried ;  in  one  or 
other,  your  eternity  must  be  spent. 

Think  you  that  it  is  any  satisfaction  to  Judas,  amidst 
his  present  agonies,  to  know  that  he  was  once  as  near  the 
Saviour  as  the  beloved  John ;  that  he  as  often  heard  the 
same  voice,  sat  at  the  same  table,  partook  of  the  same 
instructions,  and  to  the  eye  of  all,  but  his  Divine  Master, 
appeared  as  entirely  a  disciple  ?  Will  it  be  any  satisfac- 
tion to  you,  if  you  finally  perish  out  of  Christ,  to  reflect 
that  there  were  hours  in  your  life,  when  you  sat  among 
the  followers  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  partook  of  their 
instructions  and  their  sacraments,  and  to  the  eye  of  even 
the  holiest  of  men  were  ranked  among  them  ;  that  there 
were  moments  in  your  life  when  you  were  almost  per- 
suaded to  cast  in  your  lot  with  the  people  of  God  ?  Alas! 
so  far  from  satisfaction,  will  it  not  add  tenfold  to  your 
misery  and  remorse,  to  think  how  near  you  were  then,  to 
that  blessedness  from  which  you  are  now  for  ever  shut 
out.  O  my  brethren,  there  is  not  a  soul  among  you  who 
will  be  content  on  that  day  to  be  almost  saved  ;  be  not 
then,  I  beseech  you,  content  to-day  with  being  almost 


5(3  THE  ALMOST  CHRISTIAN. 

Christians.  Take,  then,  the  subject  before  you,  as  afford- 
ing materials  for  thinking  (for  I  only  offer  it  in  that  light), 
to  the  retirement  of  your  own  chambers;  try  yourselves 
honestly  upon  each  of  the  heads  which  have  been  brought 
before  you.  Ask  yourself  whether  the  enlightening  of 
your  understanding  in  Divine  things,  has  been  accom- 
panied by  a  corresponding  influence  upon  your  actions. 
Whether  your  peace  of  conscience  flow  from  an  undi- 
vided trust  in  the  great  atonement  of  our  Divine  Re- 
deemer, and  a  simple  dependence  upon  his  righteous- 
ness. Whether  you  desire  to  give  up  all  your  own  will, 
even  its  most  secret  waywardnesses,  to  the  will  of  God, 
to  be  governed  by  him,  and  by  him  alone ;  to  yield  all 
your  affections  to  him,  loving  nothing  in  opposition  to 
him,  nothing  more  than  him,  nothing  in  comparison  of 
him.  Whether,  lastly,  your  reformation  of  life  and  con 
duct  flow  from  the  one  great  principle  of  love  to  God,  in 
Christ  Jesus  our  Lord,  even  a  grateful  love  flowing  from 
a  heart  penetrated,  subdued,  and  softened  by  a  deep  sense 
of  all  that  our  adorable  Saviour  has  done  and  suffered 
far  your  soul.  And  now,  beloved  brethren,  if  there  be 
one  here  present  who  has  been  led  by  the  remarks  which 
have  been  made,  to  say  secretly,  but  from  his  heart, 
"  Almost  thou  persuadest  me  to  be  a  Christian;"  almost 
I  resolve  to  part  from  that  dear  sin,  to  give  up  that 
cherished  lust,  to  avoid  that  evil  companion,  to  renounce 
those  things  which  I  know  are  separating  between  me 
and  my  God ;  almost  I  determine  this  day  to  devote  my- 
self, body  and  soul,  to  my  Redeemer;  how  earnestly, 
how  affectionately  would  I  entreat  you,  by  the  mercies 
of  God,  by  the  blood  of  Christ,  by  the  salvation  of  your 
never-dying  spirit,  by  the  duration  of  eternity,  to  rest  not 
here :  to  cast  yourself  in  secret,  fervent  prayer  before  the 
mercy-seat,  and,  like  him  of  old,  not  to  leave  it  without 


THE  ALMOST  CHRISTIAN. 


57 


a  blessing;  not  to  suffer  those  blessed  resolutions  to 
escape,  as  probably  many  before  have  done,  from  your 
mind,  until  you  have,  by  God's  grace,  closed  with  the 
offers  of  redeeming  love,  and  become,  not  only  almost, 
but  altogether  such  us  he  was  who  spake  the  words  of 
the  text,  Christ's  here;  and  Christ's  for  ever. 


SEKMON  V. 

THE  BELIEVER'S  ASSURED  INHERITANCE. 

1  PETER  i.  3—5. 

Blessed  be  the  God  and  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  which  ac- 
cording to  his  abundant  mercy,  hath  begotten  us  again  unto  a 
lively  hope,  by  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ  from  the  dead,  to 
an  inheritance  incorruptible,  and  undefiled,  and  that  fadeth  not 
away,  reserved  in  heaven  for  you,  who  are  kept  by  the  power  of 
God  through  faith  unto  salvation. 

THE  Christian's  duties  of  thanksgiving  and  praise  for 
all  the  temporal  blessings,  by  which  he  is  surrounded, 
were  set  before  you  from  this  place,  upon  the  last  Sab- 
bath. In  these  he  can  unite  with  all  creation;  for,  by  a 
strong  and  beautiful  figure  of  speech,  we  find  the  Psalm- 
ist calling  upon  the  sun  and  moon,  the  fire  and  hail,  the 
snow  and  vapours,  the  creeping  things,  and  flying  fowls, 
to  praise  the  Lord.  But  there  are  also  subjects  upon 
which,  if  the  Christian,  as  is  his  bounden  duty,  offers 
thanksgivings  to  his  God,  he  must  offer  them  alone; 
upon  which  the  sun  and  moon,  the  mountains  and  the 
hills,  are  silent ;  for  which  the  cattle  and  creeping  things 
have  no  voice;  in  which  even  his  fellow-men,  if  they 
have  never  turned  their  thoughts  to  the  great  and  holy 
subjects  which  engage  his  mind,  if  they  are  not  in  fact 
also  his  fellow  Christians,  cannot  unite  with  him  ;  in 

58 


BELIEVER'S  ASSURED  INHERITANCE.  /jjfj 

which  none  can  unite,  but  those  who  have  experienced 
the  blessings,  and  partaken  of  the  benefits  of  which  he  is 
a  partaker,  and  are  looking  forward  to  the  joys  which  he 
reasonably  and  unhesitatingly  anticipates. 

A  remarkable  instance  of  the  truth  of  this  observation 
is  afforded  us  in  the  words  of  the  text.  We  there  find 
the  apostle  rendering  blessings  to  God  for  mercies,  which 
none  but  the  true  Christian,  the  man  who  is  really  living 
not  to  time,  but  to  eternity,  who  has  really  passed  from 
a  state  of  indifference  to  the  things  of  God,  in  which  all 
are  created,  to  a  state  of  real  and  earnest  participation 
in  them,  can  experience. 

It  will  not  therefore,  by  God's  grace,  be  unprofitable  to 
analyze  this  instance  of  the  apostle's  thanksgiving.  And 
there  are  two  ways  in  which,  while  I  am  so  employed, 
you  may  render  the  consideration  useful  to  yourselves ; 
first,  by  considering  how  far  you  can  individually  join 
in  the  thanksgiving  of  the  text.  And,  secondly,  by  re- 
flecting what  is  the  position  in  which  you  individually 
stand,  with  regard  to  God  and  to  eternity,  with  regard 
to  your  own  souls  and  their  salvation,  if  you  cannot 
join  at  all  in  these  praises;  which,  though,  in  the 
case  before  us,  indicted  by  an  apostle,  have  unques- 
tionably been,  and  shall  unquestionably  be,  the  lan- 
guage of  the  people  of  God  in  every  age,  and  in  every 
clime,  till  time  shall  be  no  more.  I  merely  throw  out 
these  reflections  for  the  personal  consideration  of  you  who' 
hear  me;  it  is  not  my  intention  to  dwell  upon  them, 
even  for  a  moment;  my  business  is  simply  to  explain 
the  text ;  it  is  yours,  if  you  desire  to  profit  by  it,  thus  lo 
apply  it  to  your  own  consciences  and  hearts :  and  may 
the  Almighty  God  direct  you,  that  you  hear  not  the 
Word  of  God  in  vain  ! 

We   proceed  then,  to  offer  a  simple  analysis  of  ihe 


60 


THE  BELIEVER'S 


words  before  us.     "  Blessed  be  the  God  and  Father  of 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

I.  That  he  has  "  begotten  us  again  unto  a  lively  hope 
by  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ  from  the  dead." 

II.  That  he  has  prepared  an  inheritance  for  us. 

III.  That  he  has  promised  to  keep  us  for  the  inherit- 
ance so  prepared. 

The  first  object,  then,  of  the  apostle's  thanksgiving  is, 
—that  God  has  begotten  us  again  unto  a  lively  hope  by 
the  resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ  from  the  dead. 

It  is  natural  that  the  first  step  in  the  Christian  life 
should  be  the  first  subject  of  the  Christian's  thanksgiving. 
God  has  begotten  us  again.  Yes,  my  brethren,  as 
surely  as  that  you  were  once  born  of  flesh  and  blood, 
so  surety,  if  you  are  now  on  the  straight  and  narrow  path, 
now  preparing  for  a  heavenly  inheritance,  have  you  been 
born  again  of  the  Spirit,  made  new  creatures  in  Christ 
Jesus,  taught  to  put  off  the  old  man  with  his  lusts,  the 
world  with  its  unholy  pleasures,  self  with  its  sins.  It  is 
for  this  new  creation  in  the  soul,  that  the  apostle  first 
praises  God. 

Observe  how  remarkably  strong  are  the  expressions  of 
his  thanksgiving.  He  does  not  say,  "  Blessed  be  God 
that  he  has  reformed  us,  or  improved  us ;  that  he  has 
made  us  better  than  we  were  in  the  days  of  our  igno- 
rance and  sin,"  but  that  he  has  "  begotten  us  again." 
How  striking  must  be  the  alteration  ;  how  entire  must  be 
the  change  of  motives  and  feelings,  of  inclination  and 
practice,  to  justify  such  a  term  as  this !  Could  such  a 
phrase  be  ever  applicable  if  the  work  were  only  a  partial 
work?  If  we  had  left  off  some  sins  while  we  cleaved  to 
others,  if  we  neglected  some  duties  while  we  practised 
others,  we  would  ask  any  n h prejudiced  person  among 
you,  if  you  had  met  with  such  a  phrase  in  any 


ASSURED  INHERITANCE.  gj 

other  book  than  the  Bible,  would  you  have  had  a  mo- 
ment's doubt  as  to  the  meaning  of  the  author?  Would 
you  not  yourself  have  said,  Surely  the  change  here 
alluded  to  must  be  total  and  entire  to  justify  such  an  ex- 
pression? There  must  be  the  implantation  of  a  new 
principle  in  the  heart  to  give  the  full  meaning  to  such 
language.  And  if  the  phrase,  "  begotten  again,"  could 
lead  you  to  this  result,  would  not  the  declaration,  "  God 
has  begotten  us/'  lead  you  to  another  result,  viz.,  that 
the  work  here  spoken  of  cannot  be  your  own.  If,  by 
the  unaided  efforts  of  your  own  resolutions,  you  could 
turn  from  a  death  in  sin  "  to  a  life  unto  righteousness," 
would  it  not  be  a  total  misapplication  of  language  to  say, 
that  by  such  a  change  God  had  begotten  you  again  ? 
Most  assuredly  it  would.  The  apostle  in  such  a  case 
might  have  said,  "  Blessed  be  God  that  we  have  be- 
gotten ourselves  again  ;"  but  he  could  never  have  said, 
"  Blessed  be  the  God  and  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  which  according  to  his  abundant  mercy  hath  be- 
'gotten  us,"  unless,  as  it  most  certainly  is,  the  work  of 
this  change  in  heart  and  life  were  wholly  and  entirely, 
from  first  to  last,  the  work  of  God  himself.  Be  assured, 
therefore,  that  if  you  trust  to  yourself,  you  will  never  be 
influenced  by  any  thing  in  yourself,  to  turn  from  the  follies 
and  pleasures  of  sin  to  holiness  and  to  God,  but  that  you 
must  prayerfully,  faithfully,  constantly,  seek  a  power 
far  greater  than  your  own  ;  in  fact,  that  you  must  un- 
ceasingly desire,  and  as  unceasingly  ask  for,  the  sweet 
and  gentle,  but  still  powerful  and  prevailing,  influence 
of  God's  quickening  Spirit.  It  is  he  who  finds  you,  as 
the  Scripture  describes  you,  and  as  you  feel  yourselves 
to  be,  "  dead  in  trespasses  and  sins."  It  is  he  who 
breathes  into  your  soul  the  spiritual  life  of  the  children 
of  God.  It  is  he  who  sees  you  fast  bound  by  the  thou- 

6 


62 


THE  BELIEVER'S 


sand  chains  which  the  corruptions  of  your  own  natuie, 
and  the  fascinations  of  this  world,  have  wound  around 
you;  and  who,  by  his  all-powerful  influence,  dissolves 
these  chains,  and  frees  you  from  your  captivity ;  and 
having  given  you  the  spirit  of  light  and  life,  gives  you 
also  the  desire  and  the  will  to  walk  worthy  of  your  high 
calling,  and  to  devote  your  newly-created  powers  to  the 
service  of  your  Redeemer  and  your  God.  It  is  for  this 
that  the  apostle  blesses  the  "God  and  Father  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,"  and  rightly  blesses  him;  for  it  is 
the  act  of  God's  own  free  and  sovereign  grace,  utterly 
undeserved,  and  equally  undeserved,  by  every  individual 
object  of  it.  If  I  then  address  any  who  have  attained 
to  one  scriptural  thought  of  God ;  to  one  heartfelt  desire 
to  know  and  to  serve  him ;  to  one  prayerful  aspiration  to 
be  what  he  would  have  you  to  be,  and  what  he 
alone  can  make  you,  you  will  most  readily  and  most 
heartily  join  in  the  thanksgiving  of  the  text;  and  while 
others,  even  the  possessors  of  immortal  souls,  the  heirs 
of  immortality,  are  like  the  mountains  and  the  hills, 
sunk,  in  a  silence  which  their  hearts  cannot  enable  them 
to  break,  you  will  join  in  saying,  "  Blessed  be  the  God 
and  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ"  for  this  undeserved 
mark  of  his  compassion  and  love.  To  him  be  all  the 
praise  and  all  the  glory.  To  you  then,  we  would  only 
add,  earnestly  beseech  him  to  carry  forward  the  work  of 
mercy,  which  he  alone  could  have  commenced;  and  be 
assured,  that  he  who  has  begun  the  good  work  will  con- 
tinue it  until  the  day  of  Jesus  Christ ;  but  that  neverthe- 
less, according  to  his  own  gracious  declaration,  even  for 
this,  he  will  be  inquired  of  by  you.  But  we  must  turn 
to  the  second  great  and  blessed  subject  of  the  apostle's 
praises,  the  "  lively  hope,"  which  next  excites  his  thanks- 
givings. 


ASSURED  INHERITANCE.  g£ 

There  are  those,  my  brethren,  strange  as  it  may  seem 
to  you,  who,  when  they  think  of  spiritual  religion,  the 
religion  of  our  blessed  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  think  of  it  as 
some  gloomy  and  forbidden  mysticism;  something  of 
which  they  feel  themselves  to  be  ignorant,  and  are  rather 
inclined  to  thank  God  that  they  are  so,  believing  that  the 
reception  of  it  would  deprive  them  of  the  harmless  joys 
and  innocent  pleasures  of  life,  and  that  all  religion  is  a 
morose  and  melancholy  thing.  This  is  an  argument 
against  the  reception  of  the  truths  of  the  Gospel,  so  uni- 
versal, that  it  is  impossible  to  avoid  alluding  to  it ;  and 
yet  so  unscriptural,  that  the  most  simple  reader  of  God's 
Word  can  overthrow  it.  Look  at  the  manner  in  which 
the  apostle  expresses  himself  in  the  very  words  we  are 
considering.  He  blesses  God  that  he  has  begotten  us — 
to  what  ?  To  a  lively  hope,  a  cheerful  expectation,  a 
soul-delighting  and  heart-elevating  joy,  by  the  resurrec- 
tion from  the  dead ;  to  an  "  inheritance  incorruptible, 
undefiled,  and  that  fadeth  not  away."  Does  this*appear 
to  be  the  language  of  a  man  who  saw  any  thing  in  reli- 
gion of  privation  or  restraint,  of  gloom  or  despondency  ? 
Is  it  not  rather  the  expression  of  one  who  felt  that  his 
greatest  present  happiness,  quite  as  much  as  his  future 
welfare,  depended  entirely  on  those  views  of  eternity 
upon  which  the  eye  of  faith  had  now  opened  ?  He  says, 
in  other  words,  "  Blessed  be  God  that  by  the  resurrection 
of  Jesus  Christ  (which  was  the  seal  and  sign  that  his 
atonement  had  been  accepted  for  the  remission  of  our 
sins),  blessed  be  God  that  I  have  now  been  created  anew 
in  heart  and  affections,  in  motives  and  desires ;  that  I  am 
filled  with  a  lively  hope  of  a  future  inheritance,  which 
no  sorrow  can  quench,  and  which  death  itself  shall  not 
be  able  to  destroy."  How  elevating  such  a  subject  ought 
to  be  !  How  cheering  such  a  hope  must  be,  where  it  is 


THE  BELIEVER'S 


rightly  received  into  the  heart!  There  is  nothing  gloomy, 
nothing  desponding  here.  Has  the  world,  and  I  address 
myself  to  you  who  know  the  world,  yes,  to  you  who 
know  it  best,  and  have  tried  it  the  most  eagerly,  and  en- 
joyed it  the  most  unscrupulously,  has  it,  with  all  its 
immunities  and  rewards,  its  wealth  for  the  covetous,  its 
rewards  for  the  ambitious,  its  luxuries  for  the  indolent, 
its  gratifications  for  the  sensual,  —  has  it  any  thing  to  offei 
which  can  stand  a  moment's  competition  with  the  Chris- 
tian's lively  hope  of  a  future  but  yet  a  certain  inheritance? 
No,  brethren,  you  know  that  it  has  not.  You  know  that 
there  is  this,  if  there  were  nothing  else,  which  blasts  every 
sinful  pleasure  of  the  world,  and  is  as  the  never-dying 
worm  at  its  heart's  core,  even  the  revealed  declaration  of 
our  God,  "  Rejoice,  O  young  man,  in  thy  youth  ;  and  let 
(hy  heart  cheer  thee  in  the  days  of  thy  youth  ;  but  know 
thou?that  for  all  these  things  God  will  bring  thee  into 
judgment."  Nay,  more  than  this,  were  there  no  judg- 
ment to  come,  there  is  something  in  the"  very  transitod- 
ness  of  these  enjoyments,  the  very  feeling  that  they  are 
gone,  never  to  return  ;  that  twenty,  thirty,  forty  years  of 
enjoyment  have  all  passed  away,  of  which  you  cannot 
purchase  back  one  hour,  if  you  would  give  a  thousand 
worlds  for  it;  that  must  make  the  worldly  man,  in  his 
moments  of  reflection,  a  melancholy  man.  Can  they  be 
otherwise  than  melancholy,  whose  pleasures  are  merely 
for  the  passing  day,  who  have  no  comforts  laid  up  for 
old  age  and  weakness,  no  consolation  ready  for  a  day  of 
sickness,  no  hope,  no  certain  hope,  in  their  death  ?  No  ! 
be  assured  that  the  end  of  that  mirth,  as  the  wise  man 
says,  "  is  heaviness."  What  would  they  give,  who  scoff 
at  the  Christian's  hope,  who  call  religion  a  melancholy 
thing;  what  would  the  happiest,  the  most  thoughtless, 
the  most  successful  of  the  sons  of  earth—  or  rather  what 


ASSURED  INHERITANCE.  g- 

would  they  not  give,  when  on  a  bed  of  sickness,  and 
about  to  enter  the  valley  of  the  shadow  of  death — for  a 
single  hour  of  that  peace  and  joy  and  strong  consolation 
which  the  true  believer  can  alone  experience;  which  is 
his  settled  portion  now,  and  which  shall  be  his  portion 
throughout  eternity  ? 

But  we  must  pass  from  the  apostle's  thanksgiving  for 
the  "  lively  hope"  of  the  Christian,  to  the  consideration 
of  that  inheritance  for  which  he  hopes,  and  the  blessed 
and  invaluable  nature  of  it. 

It  is  called,  in  the  text,  an  "  inheritance  incorruptible, 
undefiled,  and  that  fadeth  not  away."  Consider,  then, 
for  a  moment,  the  nature  and  the  blessedness  of  such  a 
prospect;  and  see  whether  it  is  not  likely  to  be  an  in- 
fluential motive,  not  merely  to  present  peace  and  happi- 
ness, but  to  present  holiness  and  gratitude  towards  God. 
You  are  placed  here  upon  earth  but  for  a  short  and 
uncertain  period;  for  the  longest  life  that  ever  yet  was 
lived,  could,  at  the  end  of  it,  only  enable  its  possessor  to 
say  with  Jacob,  "  Few  and  evil  have  been  the  days  of 
the  years  of  my  pilgrimage."  We  will  suppose  that, 
while  here,  your  lot  is  the  happiest  ever  enjoyed  by  mor- 
tals, still  all  that  you  possess  is  transitory,  all  you  do  is 
defiled,  all  that  you  love  and  enjoy  is  perpetually  fading 
from  you.  The  most  durable  of  your  possessions  cannot 
be  secured  to  you,  even  for  the  day  that  passeth  over  you. 
The  morning  sun  sees  you  rejoicing  in  your  abundance, 
the  evening  sun  may  behold  you  destitute  and  impo- 
verished. The  year  opens  upon  you  surrounded  by  an 
affectionate  family,  closely  united  to  some  beloved  rela- 
tive or  friend;  how  will  you  venture  to  assure  yourself 
that  it  shall  not,  before  its  close,  see  you  bereft  of  every 
joy  that  gladdens  life ;  separated  from  the  friend  that 
cheers,  or  the  child  that  endears  it. 


66  THE  BELIEVER'S 

Now  turn  your  eyes  from  what  you  are  to  what  you 
shall  be,  from  what  you  now  possess,  to  what  is  promised 
you  hereafter.  An  inheritance  is  placed  before  you,  in 
which  every  thing  is  in  its  nature  entirely  the  reverse  of 
all  that  you  are  now  possessing,  of  which  the  enjoyment 
is  declared,  by  the  unerring  Word  of  God,  to  be  eternal, 
for  it  is  an  inheritance  indestructible :  in  which  rw>  taint 
of  sin  shall  ever  pass  upon  it,  for  it  is  an  inheritance  un- 
defiled  :  in  which  no  change  shall  ever  interrupt  or 
diminish  the  happiness  of  it,  for  it  is  an  "inheritance 
that  fadeth  not  away."  No  sound  of  sorrow  shall  ever 
be  heard  within  those  blissful  abodes.  The  wealth  laid 
up  in  store  for  you  in  those  imperishable  garners  shall 
never  be  exhausted.  The  friends  you  knew  on  earth 
who  have  entered  there,  shall  go  no  more  out  for  ever; 
they  are  in  their  Father's  house,  rejoicing  in  their  Re- 
deemer's presence,  and  beholding  his  glory. 

How  delightful  is  the  thought,  how  blessed  the  antici- 
pation, that  not  a  person  whom  we  have  loved  on  earth, 
if  a  real  child  of  God,  shall  be  absent  from  our  future  in- 
heritance, not  a  joy  in  which,  as  Christians,  we  have 
delighted,  that  we  shall  not  find  awaiting  us,  but  per- 
fectly purified,  and  unspeakably  magnified,  in  our  Re- 
deemer's kingdom !  That,  indeed,  is  well  worthy  the 
name  of  an  inheritance,  where  all  are  heirs,  and  yet 
where  nothing  is  divided,  but  where  each  shall  enjoy  an 
abundance  of  which  no  mortal  tongue  can  tell  the  extent ; 
where  all  that  is  seen  and  heard,  and  made  in  any  man- 
ner the  subject  of  our  senses,  shall  minister  delight  to 
them,  to  an  extent  now  utterly  inconceivable;  where 
our  communion  with  God  shall  not  be  momentary,  but 
perpetual ;  where  our  perfect  union  with  our  Redeemer, 
and  with  all  the  inhabitants  of  his  kingdom,  shall  be  of 
such  a  nature  that  it  shall  form  the  one  great  subject  of 


ASSURED  INHERITANCE.  ffl 

our  thanksgiving,  the  one  great  crowning  joy  of  all  our 
joys  throughout  eternity. 

Such  is  a  faint  and  imperfect  outline — alas!  how  faint 
and  imperfect! — of  that  blissful  inheritance,  for  which 
the  apostle  blesseth  God,  the  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  that  he  has  bestowed  it  upon  his  people. 

But  there  is  yet  one  peculiar  feature,  which  to  every 
true  and  obedient  believer  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
must  yield,  while  in  this  world,  the  highest  encourage- 
ment, the  greatest  satisfaction.  It  is,  says  the  apostle,  an 
inheritance  "reserved  for  you,  who  are  kept  by  the 
power  of  God  through  faith  unto  salvation  ;"  that  is,  in 
other  words,  This  glorious  inheritance  is  kept  for  you, 
and  you  are  kept  for  it.  Here  is  a  boundless  motive  for 
gratitude,  the  one  substantial  ground  for  the  present 
peace  of  the  Christian :  not  that  there  is  in  some  far 
distant  clime  an  inheritance  which,  by  some  possibility, 
may  one  day  be  attained,  but  of  which  you  can  possess 
nothing  like  an  assurance  here  below.  Would  this  be 
comfort?  There  might  arise  in  your  minds  a  certain 
undefinable  longing  for  something  which  appeared  de- 
sirable, when  opposed  to  the  comparative  worthlessness 
of  all  in  which  your  hands  are  engaged,  or  for  which 
your  hearts  are  striving;  but  it  would  not  yield  that 
peace  to  which  we  have  already  alluded,  which  can  defy 
the  world  and  its  impositions,  the  flesh  and  its  tempta- 
tions, the  devil  and  his  threats.  It  is  then  this  peculiai 
feature  of  the  Christian's  inheritance,  which  can,  and 
will,  and,  blessed  be  God,  daily  and  hourly,  to  the  hum 
ble  follower  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour,  does  bestow  a 
peace  of  mind,  and  a  consolation  which  can  defy  all 
worldly  troubles  and  afflictions,  and  place  its  possessor 
in  a  state  where  they  shall  never  reach  him, — the  fact, 


58  THE  BELIEVER'S 

and  the  assurance  of  that  fact,  that  heaven  is  reserved  for 
him,  and  he,  by  God's  grace,  preserved  for  heaven. 

There  are  times  when  you,  I  speak  now  to  you  and 
to  you  alone,  who  are  enabled  to  thank  God  that  he  has 
begotten  you  again  unto  this  lively  hope  by  the  resurrec- 
tion of  Jesus  Christ  from  the  dead,  who  have  reason  to 
hope  that  you  are  the  unworthy  partakers  of  this  change 
of  heart,  and  of  this  change  of  life,  of  which  we  have 
been  speaking, — there  are  times  when  you  may  feel 
doubtful  whether  you  shall  ever  arrive  at  the  one  great 
object  of  your  anticipation  and  of  your  prayers;  an 
entrance  into  the  kingdom  and  joy  of  our  Lord. 

Now,  my  brethren,  at  such  moments  call  to  mind  the 
declarations  of  the  text,  and  see  whether  this  will  not 
turn  your  silence  into  thanksgiving,  your  heaviness  into 
joy.  The  revealed  Word  of  God  declares  that  the  in- 
heritance is  reserved  for  you,  and  that  you  are  reserved 
for  it.  The  word  that  expresses  this  is  in  the  original  a 
very  peculiar  word ;  it  is  that  which  is  used  for  those 
who  are  kept  by  a  constant  guard;  so  that  it  implies 
that  the  Christian  is  never  left  alone  or  unguarded  on 
the  road  to  his  inheritance  ;  that  you  have  a  defence  per- 
petually before  you  in  all  time  of  your  trouble,  and  in 
all  time  of  your  temptations  and  trials,  through  which 
your  spiritual  enemies  can  never  break,  from  which  they 
shall  never  force  you.  Your  strength  and  your  security 
do  not  depend  upon  yourselves;  they  depend  upon  your 
position.  The  weakest  woman,  the  youngest  child, 
when  placed  in  a  well -garrisoned  fortress,  may  smile  at 
the  hostile  army  without,  though  thousands  and  tens  of 
thousands  were  encamped  against  them.  And  ought 
not  the  Christian  to  know  something  of  this  security 
when  he  has  realized  the  truth  of  the  declaration  of  the 


ASSURED  INHERITANCE.  59 

Spirit  of  God,  "the  name  of  the  Lord  is  a  strong  tower; 
the  righteous  runneth  into  it  and  is  safe?"  Most  un- 
doubtedly he  ought,  for  God  is  honoured  most  when  his 
people  are  comforted  most,  and  when  his  promises  are 
the  most  unhesitatingly  received.  Believe,  then,  if  you 
are  endeavouring  to  live  to  God,  with  simple  reliance 
upon  the  all-sufficiency  of  your  Redeemer,  that  you  are 
going  to  an  inheritance  which  shall  never  fail;  that  you 
are  placed  m  a  fortress  which  can  never  be  taken;  that 
you  are  kept  by  a  guard  which  cannot  be  overcome. 

1  need  not  urge  you  to  be  careful  lest  such  a  declara- 
tion as  this  should  make  you  careless,  indifferent,  disobe- 
dient, or  unholy.  Surely,  the  very  words  of  the  text 
themselves  ought  to  prevent  this.  You  are  "  kept  by 
the  power  of  God  through  faith  unto  salvation."  It  is, 
then,  by  God's  power  that  you  are  kept,  but  it  is  through 
your  own  faith.  If  this  be  absent  the  promise  is  void. 
You  are  not  told  that  you  are  kept  by  God's  power, 
without  a  lively  influential  faith.  Man  may  tell  you  so; 
but  be  assured  God  has  never  told  you  so.  He  who  has 
appointed  the  end  has  also  appointed  the  means;  and 
those  means  are  a  true,  living,  active,  and  obeying  faith  ; 
a  faith  which  worketh  by  love  ;  a  faith  which  knows, 
and  which  honours,  and  delights  to  honour,  even  the 
very  least  of  God's  commandments;  a  faith  which,  by 
uniting  you  to  your  Redeemer,  brings  you  within  the 
citadel ;  and  by  causing  you  to  cleave  to  your  Redeemer, 
keeps  you  within  it. 

Rejoice,  therefore,  in  the  Lord,  my  Christian  brethren, 
and  glorify  him  in  your  bodies  and  your  spirits,  which 
are  his;  for  his  unerring  Word  has  declared,  "  the  Lord 
is  thy  keeper,  the  Lord  is  thy  shade  upon  thy  right  hand. 
The  sun  shall  not  smite  thee  by  day,  nor  the  moon  by 
night.  The  Lord  shall  preserve  thee  from  all  evil :  he 


TO 


BELIEVER'S  ASSURED  INHERITANCE. 


shall  preserve  thy  soul.  The  Lord  shall  preserve  thy 
going  out  and  thy  coming  in  from  this  time  forth,  and 
even  for  evermore."  How  astonishing  a  promise  !  Three 
times  within  two  verses  does  the  Almighty  pledge  him- 
self to  preserve  every  obedient  and  believing  servant 
"  from  this  time  forth  even  for  evermore."  As,  there- 
fore, you  have  been  forgiven  much,  and  as  you  have 
been  promised  much,  so  will  you  love  much,  obey  much, 
practise  much,  of  all  that  your  Lord  requires  of  you  ;  but 
still  you  will  cast  all  these  duties  away  from  you  as  the 
ground  either  of  your  merits  or  your  stability,  and  will 
let  your  morning  and  evening  song  for  ever  be  on  earth, 
as  it  will  ever  be  your  song  in  heaven,  "  Blessed  be  the 
God  and  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who,  accord- 
ing to  his  abundant  mercy,  hath  begotten  us  to  a  lively* 
hope  by  the  resurrection  from  the  dead,  to  an  inheritance 
incorruptible,  undefiled,  and  that  fadeth  not  away,  re- 
served in  heaven  for  you  who  are  kept  by  the  power  of 
God  through  faith  unto  salvation." 


SERMON  VI. 

THE  DEVICES  OF  SATAN. 


2  COR.  ii.  11. 
We  are  not  ignorant  of  his  devices. 

THE  devices  of  Satan,  our  great  spiritual  enemy,  are 
among  the  most  fearful  dangers  of  the  Christian.  It  is 
not  merely  that  we  are  "  very  far  gone  from  original 
righteousness,"  as  our  Article  expresses  it ;  that  we  are 
conceived  and  born  in  sin,  as  the  Bible  reveals  to  us ; 
that  we  carry  about  us  a  body  of  sin  and  death,  and 
within  us  "  a  heart  deceitful  above  all  things  and  despe- 
rately wicked,"  as  our  own  experience  fully  establishes ; 
but  there  is  yet  more,  far  more  than  this,  to  impede  our 
heavenward  progress,  and  ruin  our  souls.  There  is  in 
every  one's  path,  and  at  every  one's  heart,  a  cunning 
and  powerful,  a  busy  and  indefatigable  evil  spirit,  seeking 
to  devour. 

It  is  the  fashion  of  the  so-called  philosophers  of  the 
present  day  to  disbelieve,  or  affect  to  disbelieve,  the  very 
existence  of  this  evil  spirit,  and  by  this  means  most  effec- 
tually to  forward  his  endeavours.  It  is  the  theory  of  an- 
other class  to  represent  Satan  to  be  a  mere  name,  to 
express  an  evil  quality,  or  a  collection  of  evil  principles, 
but  to  deny  him  all  personality  and  existence  as  a  spirit 
of  power  and  darkness.  While  there  are  few,  even  of 

71 


72  THE  DEVICES  OF  SATAN. 

the  most  established  and  enlightened  Christians,  who 
have  any  just  conceptions  of  the  extent  of  Satan's  power, 
the  immensity  of  his  wisdom,  the  depth  of  his  cunning, 
the  infinity  of  his  resources. 

Ii  shall  be  my  endeavour,  then,  to  awaken  the  minds 
of  my  hearers  to  this  great  and  important  subject,  feeling 
convinced  that  as  our  contempt  of  an  enemy  often  leads 
to  our  own  defeat,  so  nothing,  under  God's  grace,  will 
tend  more  to  promote  in  us  all  holy  circumspection  and 
watchfulness  of  conduct,  than  just  and  scriptural  views 
of  those  devices  by  which  the  great  enemy  of  our  souls  is 
for  ever  carrying  on  his  exterminating  warfare.  Before, 
however,  I  enter  upon  the  devices  of  Satan,  it  is  neces 
sary  that  I  should  prepare  the  way  by  speaking  of  this 
fallen  spirit  himself.  And  here,  without  referring  to  the 
different  passages  of  Scripture  which  demonstrate  the 
truth  of  what  I  advance,  I  shall  confine  myself  simply  to 
the  descriptions  contained  in  them,  adding  nothing  of 
speculation  or  of  human  fancy  to  the  plain  historical 
statements  of  the  Divine  Word.  We  find,  then,  from 
that  Word  which  cannot  lie,  that  before  time  began,  the 
devil,  who  is  called  also  in  holy  writ,  Abaddon,  Apollyon, 
Beelzebub,  Belial,  and  by  many  other  appellations,  "  fell 
from  heaven/'  with  a  large  assemblage  of  evil  spirits, 
who  "  kept  not  their  first  estate,"  but  were  "  cast  down  by 
God  into  hell,"  and  are  "  reserved  in  everlasting  chains, 
under  darkness,  unto  the  judgment  of  the  great  day." 
During  the  time  that  he  is  thus  reserved  for  judgment, 
we  further  find  that  he  exercises,  by  God's  permission,  a 
species  of  government,  in  the  realms  of  darkness,  over 
those  evil  spirits  who  fell  with  him  ;  that  he  is  represented 
by  our  Lord  as  possessing  a  kingdom,  and  one  never 
divided  against  itself,  but  thoroughly  united  in  implaca- 
ble and  boundless  hatred  against  God  and  his  Christ, 


THE  DEVICES  OF  SATAN.  •J-g 

against  the  Lord  and  his  people,  and  indeed  against  the 
whole  human  race,  in  whose  everlasting  destruction  he 
is  perpetually  engaged.  He  is  called,  also,  the  "god  of 
this  world,"  "the  ruler  of  the  darkness  of  this  world," 
"the  spirit  that  now  worketh  in  the  children* of  disobe- 
dience," because  he  directs  and  co-operates  with  evil 
men  to  their  ruin,  being  a  lying  spirit  in  the  mouth  of 
false  prophets,  and  false  teachers ;  a  spirit  of  dishonesty 
in  the  thief,  of  lust  in  the  adulterer,  of  revenge  in  the 
murderer,  of  enmity  and  disobedience  to  God  in  every 
heart  which  has  not  been  renewed  and  purified,  which  is 
not  directed  and  governed  by  the  Spirit  of  God.  We 
are  thus,  for  instance,  told  distinctly  in  God's  Word,  that 
it  was  Satan  who  prevailed  on  David  to  number  the  peo- 
ple ;  that  it  was  Satan  who  tempted  Peter  to  deny,  and 
Judas  to  betray,  his  Master;  and  Ananias  and  Sapphira 
to  lie  to  the  Holy  Ghost. 

We  are  assured  also  that  he  resists  men  in  their  efforts 
to  do  good,  as  well  as  aids  and  assists  and  tempts  them  to 
do  evil ;  thus  we  are  told  by  the  prophet  Zechariah  (third 
chapter),  "that  when  Joshua,  the  high  priest,  and  the 
Jews,  assembled  to  rebuild  the  temple  of  the  Lord,  Satan 
stood  at  Joshua's  right  hand  to  resist  him ;"  and  when 
Job  was  pronounced  by  the  Almighty  himself  to  be  one 
who  "feared  God  and  eschewed  evil,"  Satan,  in  the  ac 
cursed  jealousy  of  his  heart,  rested  not  until  he  had  ex- 
hausted the  whole  quiver  of  his  fiery  darts  to  induce  the 
patient  sufferer  to  "  curse  God  to  the  face." 

Having  said  thus  much  to  establish  from  holy  writ  the 
personality,  and  to  give  some  faint  idea  of  the  occupations 
and  employments  of  this  ruler  of  the  powers  of  darkness, 
I  shall  proceed  to  speak  a  little  more  in  detail  of  some  of 
those  numerous  and  subtle  devices  by  which  he  carries 
forward  the  great  counter-scheme  at  which  he  has  been 

7 


74  THE  DEVICES  OF  SATAN. 

woiking  since  time  began,  to  rob  God  of  his  glory  in  this 
lower  world,  the  Lord  Jesus  of  his  purchased  people,  and 
us  of  our  souls. 

It  is  evident,  that  if  we  were  to  attempt  to  enumerate 
the  devices  by  which  Satan  beguiles  the  people  of  the 
world,  and  leads  captive  whom  he  will,  every  occupation, 
every  amusement,  every  person,  every  object  which  en- 
gages them  must  be  made' the  subject  of  our  considera- 
tion. This  is  impossible,  and,  therefore,  for  the  purpose 
of  contracting  the  subject  within  something  like  reason- 
able limits,  I  shall  confine  myself  to  those  devices  where- 
with he  beguiles  the  souls  of  men  in  reference  to  spiritual 
things ;  considering  them  under  two  heads,  and  dividing 
my  subject  into  three  discourses,  limiting  myself  on  t|ie 
present  occasion  to,  1st,  The  devices  with  which  Satan 
beguiles  men  before  their  conversion  to  God ;  and  in  the 
two  next  discourses,  to  the  devices  of  Satan  after  men's 
conversion. 

We  proceed,  then,  this  morning,  to  consider  some  of 
the  devices  of  Satan,  by  which  he  retains  possession  of 
the  souls  of  men  during  their  unconverted  state. 

The  first  device  which  I  shall  bring  before  you,  be- 
cause amongst  the  most  obvious  and  most  successful,  is 
his  retaining  men  in  bondage  to  himself  through  the 
agency  of  their  friends  and  companions.  "  A  threefold 
cord,"  said  the  wise  man,  "is  not  quickly  broken." 
Union  is  strength,  "  for  evil  as  well  as  for  good,  for  sin  as 
well  as  for  holiness."  One  of  Satan's  great  objects,  there- 
fore, is  to  keep  you  in  the  companionship  and  friendship 
of  those  who  acknowledge  and  serve  the  devil's  three 
great  representatives  here  on  earth,  "  the  lust  of  the  flesh, 
the  lust  of  the  eye,  and  the  pride  of  life."  As  long  as 
you  are  contented  to  live  upon  terms  of  friendship  with 
these  enemies  of  your  soul,  and  with  those  who  follow 


THE  DEVICES  OF  SATAN.  75 

them,  Satan  is  content ;  he  will  neither  distrust  nor 
harass  you.  The  nearer  in  friendship  and  relationship 
these  evil  companions  are  to  you,  the  more  completely 
does  it  answer  the  purpose  of  your  wily  adversary. 
Thus,  in  the  case  of  holy  Job,  the  friend  of  whom  Satan 
made  the  greatest  use  in  endeavouring  to  draw  him  from 
God,  was  his  wife.  She  it  was,  who,  in  the  most  trying 
hour  of  his  mental  and  bodily  suffering,  came  to  him 
with  the  taunting  inquiry,  "  Dost  thou  still  retain  thine 
integrity?"  following  it  by  the  dreadful  advice,  "  Curse 
God,  and  die  !"  Can  we  doubt  in  whose  service  she  was 
employed,  or  at  whose  instigation  she  acted  so  iniquitous 
a  part?  Thus,  again,  in  the  case  of  our  Lord,  when 
Satan  had  been  so  effectually  foiled  in  his  own  person, 
and  defeated  in  his  most  powerful  assault  by  the  Lord 
Jesus,  whom  did  he  employ  to  tempt  the  all-perfect 
Saviour  ?  Was  it  not  one  of  the  best  beloved  of  the 
apostles?  to  whose  well-intended  but  insidious  advice 
our  Lord  was  compelled  to  reply,  "  Get  thee  behind  me, 
Satan."  So,  brethren,  will  you  find  it  in  your  own  ex- 
perience, that  of  all  the  devices  by  which  Satan  leads 
you  captive  at  his  will,  the  first,  the  most  frequent,  and 
the  most  successful,  is  through  the  instrumentality  of 
your  relatives  and  friends.  What  an  argument  is  this 
against  forming  intimacies,  and  still  more,  permanent 
connexions  with  those  who  fear  not  God.  If  you  are  in 
earnest  in  your  soul's  salvation,  you  will,  above  all  things, 
and  before  all  things,  form  your  friendships,  and  en- 
deavour to  unite  yourself  only  to  those  who  appear  to 
possess  more  of  God's  Spirit  than  you  have  ;  you  will 
seek  their  company,  their  friendship,  their  love.  The 
last  day  only  can  determine  how  many  a  brand  has  been 
plucked  from  the  burning  by  the  instrumentality  of 
Christian  friendship.  On  the  other  hand,  how  many 


7Q  THE  DEVICES  OF  SATAN. 

are  there  among  you  at  this  moment,  who,  if  you  spake 
the  truth,  would  be  obliged  to  confess,  that  one  of  the 
strongest  and  most  influential  motives  which  detain  you 
from  giving  yourselves  to  God  with  a  whole  heart,  and 
"  following  the  Lord  fully,"  is  to  be  found  in  the  entice- 
ments and  allurements,  the  love  or  the  fear  of  your  rela- 
tives, your  friends,  or  your  companions. 

The  second  device  by  which  the  devil  tempts  the  un- 
converted is,  the  inconsistencies  of  the  converted,  that 
is,  of  real  Christians.  This  forms  one  of  the  most  dan- 
gerous stumbling-blocks  in  the  path  of  the  unconverted. 

Satan  is  continually  disseminating,  exaggerating,  and 
inventing  instances  of  the  inconsistence  of  religious  peo- 
ple. "  Observe,"  he  says,  "  the  pride,  or  the  worldli- 
ness,  or  the  vanity,  or  the  covetousness  of  one  who  pro- 
fesses more  godliness  than  those  around  him.  Observe 
his  hastiness  or  moroseness,  his  unkind  ness  and  un- 
charitableness,  his  melancholy  and  gloominess :  will  you 
seek  for  a  deeper  feeling,  and  a  more  entire  reception  of 
a  religion  which  produces  such  fruits  as  these?"  is  the 
language  of  the  tempter.  These  are,  doubtless,  in  many 
instances  the  invention  of  him,  who,  as  the  Word  of  God 
assures  us,  was  "a  liar  from  the  beginning;"  in  too 
many  instances,  however,  we  acknowledge  that  they  are 
founded  in  truth  ;  but  then,  brethren,  to  be  aware  of  this 
device  of  Satan,  you  must  recollect  that  these  sins  and 
short-comings  of  religious  people  are  not  because  they 
are  religious,  but  notwithstanding  they  are  religious. 
They  are  not  the  effect  of  their  religion ;  they  would 
have  existed,  and  in  all  probability  with  tenfold  acrimony, 
if  they  had  never  been  religious  at  all.  The  morose 
man  would  have  been  morose ;  the  covetous  man, 
covetous;  the  proud  man,  proud ;  if  he  had  never 
heard  of  religion.  And,  without  doubt,  he  would  have 


THE  DEVICES  OF  SATAN.  77 

been  ten  times  more  morose,  or  covetous,  or  proud,  than 
he  now  is.  The  device  of  Satan  consists  in  teaching 
.you  to  view  these  things  as  the  fruits  of  his  religion,  that 
thus  the  doctrines  of  grace,  and  the  practice  of  ungodli- 
ness, may  become  associated  in  your  mind  as  inseparable 
companions.  While  Satan  takes  a  peculiar  pleasure  in 
blazoning  these  failings  of  God's  people  forth,  and  in 
making  them  the  subject  of  your  thoughts  and  conversa- 
tion; he  takes  peculiar  pains  also,  that  you  should  never 
know  how  poignant  is  the  regret,  how  deep  the  repent- 
ance, how  free  and  full  the  acknowledgment  of  these 
infirmities  and  sins,  before  a  throne  of  grace,  by  those 
who  commit  them.  Satan  shows  you  the  children  of 
God  in  their  hours  of  weakness;  it  would  defeat  his 
guilty  purpose,  were  he  able  to  tell  you  of  their  penitence 
and  contrition,  of  their  bitter  tears  and  heartfelt  prayers, 
and  free  and  full  forgiveness,  when  they  have  drawn 
near  to  the  blood  of  sprinkling,  and  again  found  peace 
for  their  souls.  His  purpose  is  fully  answered  if  he  can 
thus  induce  you  to  hate  and  despise  and  calumniate  holy 
persons  arid  holy  things.  Such  a  state  of  mind,  on  your 
part,  will  widen  the  breach  already  existing  between  you 
and  your  God,  and  will  stand  as  a  wall  of  adamant  in 
the  way  of  your  soul's  approach  to  the  Saviour.  You 
will  naturally  be  too  proud  to  imitate  the  example,  to 
seek  the  counsel,  to  desire  the  intimacy,  or  to  love  the 
religion  of  men,  whom  the  devil  teaches  you  to  despise ; 
and  by  thus  keeping  you  from  the  servants  of  Christ,  he 
will  often  too  fatally  succeed  in  keeping  you  from  their 
Master. 

The  third  device  of  Satan,  and  closely  following  upon 
the  steps  of  the  former,  indeed  necessarily  connected 
with  it,  is  by  misrepresenting  religion  itself.  To  the 
young,  Satan  takes  particular  care  to  portray  all  true 

7* 


78  THE  DEVICES  OF  SAT  AS?. 

and  vital  religion  as  a  gloomy  and  melancholy  subject, 
which  will  rob  you  of  your  cheerfulness  and  joy.  To 
the  weak  and  timid,  as  a  difficult  and  dangerous  enter- 
prise, upon  which  you  had  better  not  embark,  but  "  sit 
down  first  and  count  the  cost;"  not  as  our  Lord  gave  the 
same  advice,  that  you  may  rise  up  with  resolution  and 
strength  to  begin  to  build,  and  to  be  enabled  to  finish, 
but  that  you  may  never  enter  upon  a  course  which 
would  free  you  from  Satan's  captivity,  and  number  you 
among  the  Lord's  freemen.  It  is  for  this  purpose  that 
he  often  shows  you,  while  in  an  unconverted  state,  the 
cross  and  its  dangers,  but  hides  from  you  the  crown  and 
its  glories. 

If  you  value  your  own  souls  you  will  never  rest  con- 
tentedly with  the  views  of  religion  which  are  given  you 
by  its  enemies.  Search  the  Word  of  God  for  yourselves, 
there  only  can  you  find  the  religion  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  in  its  purity  and  its  perfections.  Attend  carefully, 
while  under  a  scriptural  ministry;  "  Faith,"  the  apostle 
expressly  assures  us,  "  faith  cometh  by  hearing."  Com- 
pare what  you  hear,  not  with  what  those  around  you 
tell  you,  or  with  what  Satan  through  the  instrumentality 
of  your  own  evil  heart  suggests,  but  compare  what  you 
hear  with  what  you  read  in  God's  own  word ;  arid  you 
will,  by  God's  grace,  soon  be  made  sensible  of  the  truth, 
and  the  value  of  all  the  peculiar  doctrines  of  the  Gospel, 
and  will  find  the  service  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  to  be 
perfect  freedom,  and  all  his  paths  peace. 

The  devices  which  I  have  hitherto  enumerated,  are 
such  as  the  devil  practises  with  effect  against  all  the  un- 
converted. But  he  is  obliged  to  have  recourse  to  other, 
and  less  palpable  engines,  when,  either  from  the  direct 
operations  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  or  the  temporary  effect 
of  some  awakening  discourse,  or  some  afflicting  provi- 


THE  DEVICES  OF  SATAN.  7Q 

dence,  the  unconverted  man  is  in  a  measure  awakened 
from  his  stupor,  and  led  to  begin  to  inquire  after  Divine 
things. 

The  fourth  device,  then,  which  I  shall  mention,  is 
usually  applied  by  Satan  to  persons  in  the  state  of 
mind  to  which  I  have  just  referred,  as  beginning 
to  inquire;  and  may  be  denominated,  inspiring  hard 
thoughts  of  God,  and  discouraging  thoughts  of  the 
way  of  salvation.  When  the  devil  perceives  that 
you  are  becoming  desirous  to  turn  to  God,  he  often 
begins  by  representing  our  heavenly  Father  to  you,  as  a 
hard  task-master;  a  harsh  and  severe  judge:  as  one 
who  loves  to  take  vengeance  upon  the  ungodly,  and  re- 
joices in  the  destruction  of  the  sinner.  O  how  different 
from  the  truth,  how  widely  different  from  the  character  in 
which  God  himself  reveals  himself  to  the  hearts  of  his  child- 
ren, when  he  speaks  peace  to  the  troubled  soul. and  pardon 
to  the  penitent  through  the  blood  of  Jesus;  when  he 
says',  u  I,  even  I,  am  he  who  blotteth  out  your  iniqui- 
ties for  my  own  sake,  and  will  not  remember  your  sin ;" 
when  he  declares  that  he."  willeth  not  the  death  of  a 
sinner,"  but  that  all  should  come  to  repentance.  Even 
Satan,  for  he  once  experienced  God's  tenderness,  even 
that  condemned  spirit  knows  that "  God  is  love,"  though 
he  knows  it  only  to  the  increase  of  his  misery  and 
wretchedness  and  pain;  and  he  therefore  knows  that  his 
only  hope  of  retaining  the  sinner  in  his  cruel  bondage, 
is  by  misrepresenting  and  defaming  God ;  for  let  the 
sinner  possess  but  one  view,  one  true  and  scriptural  view 
of  the  forgiving  tenderness  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus,  let 
him  see  but  one  ray  of  that  redeeming  love  which  is  con- 
tinually shining  from  the  cross  of  the  Redeemer,  and 
Satan's  power  in  his  heart  is  for  ever  broken,  Satan's 
reign  there  for  ever  at  an  end.  As  soon,  therefore,  as 
you  are  begic  ning  to  turn  to  God,  Satan  uses  his  every 


gQ  THE  DEVICES  OF  SATAN. 

effort  to  malign  him.  He  assures  you  that  God  is  a 
jealous  God,  a  severe  God,  a  God  taking  pleasure  in  the 
death  of  a  sinner,  and,  therefore,  God  will  not  pardon 
you ;  that  God  is  your  enemy,  that  he  views  you  as  a 
task-master  views  his  slave,  and  rejoices  over  your  bur- 
den, and  your  inability  to  bear  it;  that  your  heart  is  so 
hard  that  you  cannot  repent,  and  that  God  would  not 
accept  you  even  if  you  could  ;  that  your  sins  are  so  great 
and  yourself  so  vile,  that  it  is  vain,  utterly  vain,  for  you 
to  approach  a  holy  God.  When  you  hear  the  freest  in- 
,  vitations  to  come  to  the  Saviour  for  pardon  and  accept- 
ance, Satan  suggests  that,  whatever  others  may  have 
done,  you  have  sinned  beyond  the  reach  of  such  invita- 
tions as  these,  and  therefore  that  it  is  vain  for  you  to  seek 
a  Saviour.  But  if  he  finds  that  all  these  devices  are 
fruitless  in  repressing  your  desire,  and  that  you  are  still 
anxious,  increasingly  anxious,  to  accept  the  invitation, 
then  he  changes  his  plan,  advises  you  by  all  means  to 
fly  for  help  and  deliverance  to  the  Lord,  but  first  to 
mortify  and  to  forsake  your  sins,  to  be  humbled  and 
sanctified,  holy  and  just  and  good,  and  then  to  go  to  the 
Saviour.  These  are,  indeed,  most  dangerous  delusions; 
but,  blessed  be  God,  they  will  disperse  at  the  touch  of  the 
spear  of  the  Divine  Word. 

Does  Satan  suggest  to  you  that  you  are  too  vile  and 
too  sinful  to  go  to  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ?  He  might  with 
equal  truth  have  kept  Naaman,  the  leper,  from  the 
cleansing  waters.  It  was  because  he  had  a  leprosy,  that 
he  was  sent  to  wash  in  Jordan ;  it  is  because  you  are 
thus  guilty  and  thus  polluted,  that  you  must  fly  to  the 
cleansing  blood  of  Christ. 

Does  Satan  again  urge  you  to  be  humbled,  and  to 
labour  after  holiness, to  fit  you  to  come  to  Christ?  This, 
again,  is  merely  to  keep  you  for  ever  from  him. 

No !  When  you  have  received  Christ,  when  you  have 


THE  DEVICES  OF  SATAN.  gj 

cast  yourself  upon  him  who  is  alone  mighty  to  save  for 
salvation,  and  upon  the  strong  for  strength,  then  you 
shall  be  enabled  to  perform  all  your  duties,  and  fulfil, 
however  imperfectly,  all  God's  requirements;  but  you 
may  exercise  all  self-denial,  and  partake  of  all  ordinances, 
and  dig  for  ever  in  the  mines  of  humiliation  and  contri- 
tion and  holiness,  and  never  find  there  the  precious  gems 
of  pardon  and  peace.  Cast  your  soul  with  confidence 
upon  the  Lord  Jesus  for  free  pardon  and  justification  in 
your  present  state,  be  it  what  it  may,  and  he  will  give  you 
all  these  things,  which  Satan  prompts  you  to  seek  for 
yourself;  a  softened  heart  to  feel  and  to  forsake  your  sins, 
a  godly  sorrow  to  work  repentance  unto  salvation  not  to 
be  repented  of,  a  spirit  of  holy,  consistent  obedience,  to 
run  the  way  of  God's  commandments. 

To  conclude :  in  bringing  these  different  devices  of 
Satan  before  you,  and  in  attributing  them  to  their  right 
author,  I  feel  that  I  am  performing  a  great  and  impera- 
tive duty,  as  the  minister  of  God,  and  one  which,  by 
God's  grace,  may  be  made  useful  to  some  souls,  in  tearing 
away  the  mask  from  the  face  of  this  deceiver.  There 
is,  however,  one  danger  attending  this  subject,  against 
which  I  could  desire  to  guard  you,  and  which  naturally 
flows  from  the  considerations  which  have  been  brought 
before  you  to-day.  It  is  this:  you  may,  perhaps,  be 
tempted  to  reason  thus:  If  all  these  different  hindrances 
in  the  way  of  my  salvation,  if  all  these  suggestions  which 
have  often  arisen  in  my  heart,  be  indeed  devices  of  the 
devil,  then  surely  I  am  guiltless ;  the  fault  is  Satan's, 
and  the  condemnation  must  be  Satan's,  that  I  am  not 
yet  converted  to  God.  Brethren,  be  assured  that  this  is 
only  an  additional  delusion  from  the  tempter;  all  revela- 
tion contradicts  it. 

For  behold  the  sin  of  our  first  parents ;  the  Word  of 
God  assures  us  that  there,  in  a  most  marked  and  peculiar 


£2  THE  DEVICES  OF  SATAN. 

manner,  Satan  was  the  tempter;  that  it  was  a  device 
which  sprang  immediately  from  himself,  and  yet,  alas! 
how  tremendous  is  the  curse  which  Adam's  disobedience 
entailed  upon  himself  and  his  posterity. 

So,  again,  with  David,  the  Word  of  God  as  expressly 
declares,  "  Satan  stood  up  against  Israel  and  provoked 
David  to  number  Israel"  (i  Chron.  xxi.  1) ;  yet  I  need 
not  remind  you  that  the  punishment  fell  upon  the 
guilty  David. 

This  is  not  only  true,  but,  like  all  the  dealings  of  our 
heavenly  Father,  it  is  just.  If  Satan  could  compel  you 
to  the  sin  to  which  he  tempts  you,  then,  indeed,  it  would 
be  most  cruel,  most  unjust,  that  you  should  suffer  for  it: 
but  it  is  impossible;  Satan  has  no  power  beyond  the 
mere  power  of  alluring  and  enticing;  if  he  had,  our 
Lord  would  have  been  obliged  to  throw  himself  from  the 
pinnacle  of  the  temple,  and  not  merely  tempted  to  do  so; 
and  Job  would  as  assuredly  have  been  compelled  to  have 
cursed  God.  Therefore  St.  James  most,  truly  says, 
"  Every  man  is  tempted,  when  he  is  drawn  away  of  his 
own  lust  and  enticed :"  he  does  not  say,  "  When  he  is 
drawn  away  by  the  invincible  power  of  the  devil."  The 
devil  has  no  such  power;  he  never  has  drawn,  and  never 
can  draw  away,  any  single  individual,  unless  in  complete 
accordance  with  that  individual's  own  inclination,  and 
perfectly  in  union  with  that  individual's  lusts. 

It  is,  therefore,  vain  to  endeavour  to  throw  upon  Satan 
the  guilt  of  your  distance  from  God,  your  non-conversion 
to  the  Lord  Jesus;  were  this  the  truth,  our  Lord  never 
could  have  said,  "  Ye  will  not  come  unto  me  that  ye 
might  have  life."  There  is  no  natural  inability  in  any 
man  to  seek  the  salvation  of  Jesus;  that  there  is  unques- 
tionably a  moral  inability,  a  dislike,  a  disinclination,  a 
violent  Dpposition  of  the  will,  only  enhances  our  guilt, 
and  will  increase  our  punishment.  But  do  not  deceive 


THE  DEVICES  OF  SATAN.  gg 

yourselves  by  attributing  your  alienation  from  God  to  a 
power  which  you  cannot,  by  God's  grace,  successfully 
oppose.  No ;  you  can  resist  the  devil,  or  you  would  not 
have  been  commanded  to  do  so ;  you  can,  by  God's 
grace,  vanquish  him,  or  you  would  never  be  condemned 
for  your  failure.  In  obeying  the  temptations  of  Satan, 
you  simply  perform  your  own  will ;  you  follow  your  own 
inclination;  no  man  can  profess  to  say  when  he  sins, 
that  he  does  so  simply  to  please  the  devil.  No ;  Satan 
and  the  sinner  invariably  agree  upon  this  point;  you  are 
perfectly  well  aware  that  you  sin  simply  to  please  your- 
selves, and  it  would  therefore  be  too  much  to  expect  that 
Satan  should  bear  the  burden  and  the  condemnation. 

Keep  in  mind,  thea,  brethren,  that  this  is  a  solemn 
declaration  of  God,  "  Resist  the  devil,  and  he  will  flee 
from  you;"  none  ever  acted  upon  it,  in  humble  depend- 
ence upon  the  Holy  One  of  Israel  for  strength,  and  was 
disappointed.  However  evil  men  or  evil  spirits  may 
misrepresent  the  Gospel  or  its  followers,  be  sure  of  this, 
for  it  is  the  Word  of  the  living  God,  that  "  If  our  Gospel 
be  hid,  it  is  hid  to  them  that  are  lost,  in  whom  the  god 
of  this  world  hath  blinded  the  minds  of  them  which 
believe  not,  lest  the  light  of  the  glorious  Gospel  of  Christ, 
who  is  the  image  of  God,  should  shine  unto  them."  But 
be  ye  equally  sure  of  this,  that  that  gracious  Saviour  who 
has  said,  "  Him  that  cometh  unto  me,  I  will  in  no  wise 
cast  out,"  now  invites,  nay,  beseeches  the  most  hardened 
and  the  most  guilty,  the  youngest,  and  the  most  weak  and 
feeble  among  you  to  be  "  reconciled  to  God,"  through 
his  precious  blood;  and  that  neither  man  nor  Satan  can 
keep  you  from  him,  if  you  be  willing  to  accept  the 
blessed  invitation :  may  God  of  his  infinite  mercy  grant 
that  you  may  this  day  receive  it  to  the  salvation  of  your 
souls! 


SERMON  VIL 

THE  DEVICES  OF  SATAN. 


2  Cor.  ii.  11. 
We  are  not  ignorant  of  his  devices. 

IN  addressing  you  in  my  last  discourse  upon  the  very 
important  and  deeply  instructive  subject  of  the  devices 
of  Satan,  I  intentionally  confined  my  observations  to 
those  devices  with  which  he  particularly  besets  the  path 
of  the  unconverted.  We,  on  that  occasion,  reviewed  the 
danger  from  our  own  families  and  friends;  from  worldly 
and  infidel  and  ungodly  companions ;  from  the  incon- 
sistencies and  sins  of  real  Christians;  from  Satan's  mis- 
representation of  religious  persons  and  of  religion  itself; 
from  his  suggesting  hard  thoughts  of  God,  and  discou- 
raging views  of  the  way  of  salvation;  and,  lastly,  where 
all  other  devices  fail  to  keep  you  from  the  Saviour,  the 
continual  efforts  which  Satan  makes  to  tempt  you  to  be- 
come a  Saviour  to  yourself,  and  to  strive  after  holiness, 
humility,  and  sanctification  through  your  own  efforts, 
instead  of  coming  at  once  to  that  Redeemer,  who  can 
alone  enable  you  to  fulfil  these  duties,  and  who  must 
himself  be  made  unto  you,  "  wisdom  and  righteousness 
and  sanctification  and  redemption." 

We  are,  on  the  present  occasion,  to  endeavour  to  set 
before  you  some  of  those  devices,  wherewith  this  iride- 
84 


THE  DEVICES  OF  SATAN.  £5 

fatigable  enemy  of  all  godliness  besets  the  path  of  the 
real  children  of  God,  seeking  to  drive  you  out  of  that 
stronghold  into  which  the  Word  and  the  power  of  God 
have  called  you;  or  failing  in  this,  to  injure  your  peace, 
to  destroy  your  happiness,  and  to  change  "  the  ways  of 
pleasantness"  into  paths  of  painfulness,  and  the  "  light 
burden"  which  a  Saviour's  love  would  lay  upon  his 
people,  into  a  galling  yoke  and  a  heavy  bondage. 

May  the  Spirit  of  wisdom  and  of  love  and  of  a  sound 
mind  direct  us  in  the  investigation ! 

As  in  the  last  discourse,  I  endeavoured  to  follow  some 
little  degree  of  order  in  arranging  the  devices  of  Satan, 
from  the  most  plain  and  obvious  and  common-place, 
with  which  he  attempts  the  hearts  of  all,  to  those  with 
which  he  more  immediately  assailed  the  heart,  when  be- 
ginning to  feel  desirous  to  turn  unto  the  living  God;  so 
would  I,  on  the  present  occasion,  endeavour,  in  a  similar 
manner,  to  follow  the  steps  of  the  destroyer,  only  premis- 
ing, that  there  can  be  no  certain  rule  in  these  things,  but 
that  since  God's  Word  has  declared  that,  "as  in  water 
face  answereth  to  face,  so  the  heart  of  man  to  man  ;"* 
the  experience  of  one  may  probably  be  the  experience 
of  many,  and  the  dangers  and  difficulties  of  others,  may 
lead  you  to  foresee  and  forearm  against  your  own. 

The  first  device,  then,  with  which  Satan  often  be- 
wilders the  mind  and  endangers  the  peace  of  the  new 
convert,  is  by  perplexing  him  with  the  difficult  and  in- 
comprehensible subject  of  the  secret  decrees  of  God,  pre- 
destination, election,  and  reprobation. 

No  sooner  have  you  begun  to  feel  the  comfort  of  those 
declarations  of  the  revealed  Word  that,  "  God  would  have 
all  men  to  be  saved,  and  to  come  to  the  knowledge  of 

*  See  Proverbs  xxix.  19. 
8 


g@  THE  DEVICES  OF  SATAN. 

the  truth,"  and  that  u  whosoever  will,  may  take  of  the 
water  of  life  freely ;"  no  sooner,  in  obedience  to  the  many 
commands  and  invitations  to  come  unto  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  and  find  peace  for  your  soul,  have  you  in  much 
weakness  and  trembling  drawn  near  with  faith  to  this 
blessed  and  adorable  Redeemer,  trusting  that  poor  and 
miserable  and  sinful  as  you  feel  yourself  to  be,  he  will 
neither  despise  nor  reject  you,  than  Satan,  if  you  possess 
an  inquiring  mind,  often  produces  this  temptation  :  He 
will  say,  Is  it  not  true,  that  "God  hath  constantly  de- 
creed by  his  counsel  secret  to  us,"  I  quote  the  words  of 
the  Seventeenth  Article  of  our  Church,  "  to  deliver  from 
curse  and  damnation  those  whom  he  hath  chosen  in 
Christ  out  of  mankind,  and  to  bring  them,  by  Christ,  to 
everlasting  salvation  ?"  Yes,  this  is  a  solemn  truth  of 
God,  built  upon  all  Scripture,  and  recognized  in  all  the 
formularies  of  our  truly  scriptural  Church.  But  then 
observe  the  deduction  which  Satan  draws  from  it.  He 
suggests,  If  this  be  true,  that  God  hath  appointed  to 
eternal  felicity  those  whom  he  hath  chosen  out  of  the 
world,  as  "vessels  before  prepared  for  glory"  to  manifest 
his  mercy  and  love;  then  is  it  also  true  that  God  has  in 
like  manner  appointed  to  damnation,  those  whom  he 
hath  chosen  out  of  the  world,  for  the  purpose  of  mani- 
festing his  severity  and  wrath.  Then  follow  in  the  train 
of  this  device  of  the  evil  one,  doubts  and  fears,  and  per- 
plexing considerations  which  destroy  the  peace  of  the 
new  convert,  and  sometimes  almost  lead  him  to  absolute 
despair.  He  is  led  to  reason  with  himself;  "If  I  am 
appointed  by  God  to  condemnation,  what  matter  to  me 
the  love  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  the  offers  of  his  mercy ;  the 
decree  has  gone  forth,  the  Word  of  God  is  immutable, 
and  one  jot  or  one  tittle  shall  never  pass  away  till  all  be 
fulfilled  in  the  condemnation  of  those  whom  God  has, 


THE  DEVICES  OF  SATAN.  gj 

before  the  foundation  of  the  world,  appointed  to  destruc- 
tion." 

Brethren,  whenever  you  are  thus  tempted  by  the  evil 
one,  bear  this  in  mind  ;  we  know  nothing  of  God's  de- 
crees except  as  he  has  seen  fit  to  reveal  them.  Now  we 
do  not  scruple  to  say,  that  there  is  no  single  passage  in 
Scripture,  and  no  combination  of  passages  which  reveal 
to  us  any  thing  so  derogatory  to  the  character  of  God, 
and  so  entirely  contradictory  to  every  attribute  of  God,  as 
that  he  should  decree  any  single  individual  (irrespectively 
of  that  individual's  character  and  conduct)  to  everlasting 
condemnation.  When,  therefore,  Satan  would  harass 
and  distress  your  mind  by  such  a  delusion,  your  answer 
is  this, — Of  God's  secret  decrees  I  know  nothing,  for 
God's  own  Word  has  said,  "  The  secret  things  belong  to 
the  Lord  our  God ;"  but  there  is  one  decree  which  God 
has  seen  fit  to  publish  before  men  and  angels  by  the 
mouth  of  his  Incarnate  Son,  which,  blessed  be  God,  I 
do  know,  and  which  so  entirely  contradicts  the  falsehood 
which  Satan  calls  a  decree  of  the  living  God,  that  I  am 
satisfied  at  once  that  it  is  a  mere  device  of  the  tempter ; 
God's  decree  is  this,  that  "  Whosoever  (without  a  single 
exception)  believeth  in  the  Son  shall  not  perish,  but 
have  everlasting  life."  Upon  this  decree,  proclaimed 
and  ratified  and  sealed  on  Calvary,  I  am  content  to  rest 
my  soul  for  time  and  for  eternity ;  Satan  himself  cannot 
impugn  it ;  "  Thanks  be  unto  God  for  his  unspeakable 
gift." 

But  with  the  young  convert  Satan  has  yet  far  other 
more  successful,  because  more  hidden  snares,  than  this; 
and  when  he  cannot  prevail  with  you  upon  doctrines,  he 
will  endeavour  to  discourage  you  from  duties.  For  in- 
stance, are  you  desirous  of  attending  the  table  of  the 
Lord  ;  he  will  endeavour  to  demonstrate,  by  every  sub- 


g3  THE  DEVICES  OF  SATAN. 

tilty  and  fallacy  in  his  power,  that  you  are  unfit,  that  if 
you  go  in  your  present  state  of  mind,  you  will  draw  down 
a  curse  rather  than  a  blessing ;  that  you  will  "  eat  and 
drink  your  own  damnation,  not  considering  the  Lord's 
body."  How  many  an  humble  contrite  believer  has  been 
kept  for  years  in  succession  from  this  blessed  means  of 
grace,  and  this  "  most  comfortable"  ordinance,  by  such 
delusions  as  these.  But  here,  again,  from  the  Word  of 
God,  is  your  answer ;  "  They  that  be  whole  need  not  a 
physician,  but  they  that  are  sick;"  the  very  argument 
which  Satan  advances  to  keep  you  away  from  your 
Lord's  table,  is  urged  by  your  Lord  as  a  motive  for  going 
thither ;  and  may  fairly  be  pleaded  by  yourself  as  a  rea- 
son for  his  accepting  you. 

Again,  Satan  will  discourage  you  from  other  duties  by 
such  considerations  as  these.  He  will  tempt  you  to 
perform  them  in  a  cold,  dead,  heartless  manner;  for 
instance,  while  at  prayer  he  will  tempt  you  to  vain 
thoughts,  to  impious  thoughts,  to  profane  and  wicked 
thoughts ;  for  he  knows  that  a  prayer  which  is  not  from 
the  heart  of  the  child  will  never  reach  the  heart  of  the 
Father,  and  when  he  has  succeeded  in  doing  this,  he 
will  plead  these  very  distractions,  which  were  occasioned 
by  himself,  as  reasons  why  you  should  forego  prayer  and 
every  holy  duty ;  because  to  you  they  have  thus  become 
not  only  unprofitable,  but  even  sinful  and  unholy. 

So,  again,  with  regard  to  the  great  duty  of  self-exami- 
nation ;  no  sooner  do  you  endeavour  to  engage  in  earnest 
in  this  difficult  work,  than  Satan  is  at  your  right  hand 
to  oppose  you.  He  will  first  suggest  that  the  inquiry  is 
needless,  that  however  it  may  be  with  the  hypocrite,  or 
the  immoral,  or  the  profane,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that 
your  heart  is  right  with  God,  and  that  to  you  it  is  un- 
necessary to  examine  yourselves  "  whether  ye  be  in  the 


THE  DEVICES  OF  SATAN.  gg 

faith."  If  this  will  not  succeed,  he  will  endeavour,  the 
moment  you  have  tried  to  fix  your  thoughts  and  atten- 
tion steadily  upon  this  one  great  object,  to  interrupt  and 
distract  them  by  every  imagination  foreign  to  the  subject 
which  he  can  introduce ;  until  the  time  is  spent,  and  you 
are  obliged  to  confess,  that  instead  of  services  and  self- 
examination,  it  has  been  consumed  in  little  better  than 
the  most  trifling  idleness.  If  this  device,  however,  should 
not  succeed,  but  you  are  enabled  to  persevere  steadfastly 
in  your  intended  occupation,  and  are  resolved  to  ascer- 
tain the  true  state  of  your  affections  and  heart,  and  the 
true  value  of  your  religious  dudes,  then  Satan  will  even 
help  you  to  see  their  worthlessness  and  wretchedness,  if 
he  may  but  build  upon  it  the  temptation  that  after  all  you 
are  yourself  only  a  hypocrite ;  that  you  have  increased 
your  sin  by  your  very  prayers ;  that  duties  so  full  of 
coldness  and  carelessness  are  only  adding  to  your  ac- 
count; until  at  length  he  brings  you  to  so  bewildered  a 
state  of  mind  that  you  know  not  whether  you  would  not 
sin  the  less  by  actually  abstaining  from  duties  altogether. 
Many  there  are,  even  in  the  more  advanced  stages  of  the 
Christian  life,  who  suffer  from  these  devices,  and  some 
from  still  more  palpable  temptations  than  these.  Some- 
times, even  to  the  confirmed  Christian,  Satan  will  present 
the  strongest  suggestions  of  positive  infidelity.  There  are 
moments  when  he  will  lead  them  to  question  the  reality 
of  every  doctrine  and  every  truth  upon  which  their  hearts 
are  fixed  for  eternity.  Even  the  very  being  of  a  God, 
the  Divinity  of  the  Saviour,  the  existence  of  a  Divine 
Revelation,  the  improbability  that  one  among  ten  thou- 
sand spheres  should  have  called  the  eternal  Son  from  the 
bosom  of  the  Father  to  agonize  and  die  for  its  redemp- 
tion ;  each  and  all  of  these  will  at  times  be  present  to  the 
mind  even  of  the  most  established  believer.  In  all  such 


90  THE  DEVICES  OF  SATAN. 

cases,  prayer,  humble,  faithful  prayer,  is  the  child  of 
God's  best  and  only  refuge.  Thus,  "  resist  the  devil, 
and  he  will  flee  from  you."  Thus  unite  yourself  still 
more  closely  to  the  God  of  all  strength  and  all  consola- 
tion, and  he  will  "bruise  Satan  under  your  feet  shortly," 
and  again  anchor  your  soul  upon  the  Rock  of  Ages, 
from  which,  for  a  moment,  the  Prince  of  the  power  of 
the  air  may  have  driven  you. 

The  next  device  which  I  shall  notice  is  of  a  very  dif- 
ferent nature  from  these,  and  one  from  which  we  might 
have  hoped  that  the  children  of  God  would  in  a  great 
measure  be  free ;  and  yet,  alas !  so  deeply  is  sin  imbed- 
ded in  the  heart,  that  I  believe  the  experienced  Chris- 
tian will  not  accuse  me  of  exaggeration  even  here. 

The  device  to  which  I  allude  is  this,  that  Satan  some- 
times tempts  the  people  of  God  into  sin,  by  suggesting  to 
them  the  facility  of  returning  again  to  God  by  repentance. 
This  is  a  fearful  and  most  dangerous  fallacy.  You  are, 
perhaps,  conscious  that  you  are  about  to  enter  upon  some 
forbidden  path,  to  partake  of  some  unholy  gratification, 
to  perform  some  doubtful  act,  and  instead  of  starting 
back  from  it  with  abhorrence,  and  asking,  "  How  can  I 
do  this  great  wickedness  and  sin  against  God,"  you,are 
tempted  to  go  forward  by  the  very  recollection  of  God's 
former  mercies  and  past  forgivenesses ;  you  reason  within 
yourself,  "  This  may  possibly  be  wrong;  but  if  it  be,  I 
will  repent  and  forsake  it,  as  I  have  done  before,  and  I 
know  I  have  an  affectionate  Father,  a  merciful  and 
tender  High  Priest,  who  is  not  "  extreme  to  mark  what 
is  done  amiss,"  and  who  will  again  bestow  upon  me  re- 
pentance and  pardon."  My  Christian  brethren,  this  is  a 
most  fearful  and  desperate  delusion ;  so  fearful,  that,  if 
you  yield  to  it,  it  ought  to  make  you  question  the  very 
fact  of  your  conversion  and  your  adoption  altogether 


THE  DEVICES  OF  SATAN.  Q| 

It  is  sad  to  fall  into  sin  blindly  and  inconsiderately :  it  is 
worse,  far  worse,  to  sin  with  a  knowledge  that  you  are 
sinning,  and  against  the  convictions  fastened  upon  your 
consciences  by  the  Spirit  of  God ;  but  to  sin  with  the 
secret  determination  that,  when  you  are  satisfied,  you 
will  return ;  to  sin  because  you  know  you  have  a  God 
who  willeth  not  the  death  of  a  sinner,  but  had  "  rather 
he  should  turn  from  his  wickedness  and  live;"  this  is 
guilt  of  such  black  ingratitude,  that  we  should  indeed 
tremble  for  the  soul  that  contracted  it.  Beware,  above 
all  things,  of  such  presumptuous  guilt  as  this,  lest  you 
too  late  discover,  that  though  the  downward  passage  has 
been  easy,  the  upward  path  is  impracticable,  and  that 
there  is  no  return,  no  place  for  repentance,  though  you 
seek  it  bitterly  and  with  tears.  Few  but  those  who  have 
experienced  it  can  tell,  how  much  more  difficult  is  the 
return  to  God  than  the  departure  from  him.  The  heart 
of  man  may  not  unaptly  be  compared  to  a  spring  lock, 
which  any  individual  may  close,  but  he  who  holds  the 
key  alone  can  open.  Thus  you  may,  indeed,  easily 
turn  from  God  of  yourself;  you  may  shut  out  God  of 
yourself;  but  you  cannot  turn  to  him,  you  cannot  open 
your  heart  to  the  admission  of  him,  except  by  the  aid  of 
that  Being  of  whom  the  Word  of  God  has  declared, 
"  He  hath  the  key  of  David,  he  openeth,  and  no  man 
shutteth;  he  shutteth,  and  no  man  openeth."  How 
strong,  upon  this  subject,  is  the  language  of  God  himself; 
"It  is  impossible  for  those  who  were  once  enlightened, 
and  have  tasted  of  the  heavenly  gift,  and  were  made 
partakers  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  if  they  shall  fall  away,  to 
renew  them  again  unto  repentance."  Be  careful,  then, 
how  you  suffer  your  great  enemy  to  shut  to  the  door, 
lest  He  who  says,  "  Behold,  I  stand  ai  the  door,  and 


92  THE  DEVICES  OF  SATAN. 

knock,"  shall  depart  from  you  excluded  and  neglected, 
never  to  return  until  he  comes  in  judgment. 

The  two  next  devices  of  Satan  to  which  1  shall  advert 
are  spiritual  pride  and  spiritual  confidence. 

Spiritual  pride  is  one  of  the  most  successful  tempta- 
tions with  which  Satan  assails  a  new  convert.  We  are 
not  surprised,  in  worldly  matters,  that  the  newly  rich 
should  be  proverbially  proud  of  their  wealth.  So  in 
spiritual  graces,  the  man  who  possessed  more  yesterday, 
will  readily  be  tempted  to  vaunt  himself  of  the  little  he 
possesses  to-day.  He  who  has  newly  put  on  Christ,  is 
often  as  vain  of  the  garments  of  salvation,  as  a  child  is 
of  his  new  clothes;  and  is  not  satisfied,  unless  all  see 
and  admire  and  talk  of  him.  Young  Christians,  there- 
fore, are  usually  the  most  forward  in  all  companies  to 
boast  of  their  achievements,  and  their  acquirements.  It 
is  not  astonishing,  therefore,  that  this  device  is  often  suc- 
cessful against  them ;  especially,  when  we  bear  in  mind, 
that  the  new  convert  knows  but  little,  and  sees  but  little, 
either  of  the  unsearchable  riches  of  Christ,  or  of  the 
hitherto  unattained  advances  in  spiritual  things  which 
lie  before  him.  He  is,  therefore,  no  judge  of  the  vast 
extent,  the  infinite  dimensions  of -Divine  grace,  and  is 
perfectly  ignorant  even  of  what  his  own  necessities  and 
temptations  will  require.  He  thinks,  naturally,  that  the 
little  he  has  is  great,  because  he  knows  no  more,  and 
this  peculiarly  lays  him  open  to  the  temptation  we  are 
considering.  Every  little  act  of  self-denial  appears  to 
him  a  wonderful  effort,  and  every  labour  of  love,  a  great 
achievement.  Even  the  apostles  themselves,  in  the  early 
part  of  their  Christian  career,  were  not  free  from  this,  or 
we  should  never  have  heard  St.  Peter  exclaiming, 
"  Lord,  we  have  left  all  and  followed  thee,"  or  have 
been  told  that  they  had  disputed  among  themselves  by 
the  way,  who  should  be  "  the  greatest." 


THE  DEVICES  OF  SATAN.  93 

One  of  the  worst  effects  of  this  temptation  is,  that  it 
does  not  stand  alone,  it  usually  begets  self-confidence. 
You  have,  for  instance,  by  Divine  grace,  overcome  some 
trying  temptation ;  the  devil's  device  is  to  make  you 
vain  of  your  success,  and  the  consequence  is,  that  the 
next  time  the  same  or  a  similar  temptation  occurs,  you 
are  tempted  to  trust  to  your  own  power,  and  your  own 
strength,  and  your  own  former  experience,  and  the  grace 
you  have  before  received ;  and  the  invariable  effect  is, 
that  you  fall  before  the  temptation. 

Here,  again,  we  may  find  an  example  even  among 
the  most  loved  disciples  of  our  Lord,  "Be  ye  able  to 
drink  of  the  cup  which  I  drink  of,  and  to  be  baptized 
with  the  baptism  that  I  am  baptized  with  ?"  said  Jesus 
to  James  and  John ;  the  answer,  strongly  savouring 
of  self-confidence,  was,  "  We  are  able:?"  yet  we  do 
not  find  that  they  were  exceptions  when  "  all  the  disciples 
forsook  him  and  fled." 

Learn,  therefore,  never  to  trust  to  any  thing  in  the 
hour  of  trial,  but  to  the  strength  to  be  derived  immedi- 
ately from  God.  He  would  not  have  proclaimed  him- 
self a  "  very  present  God  in  time  of  trouble/5  if  his  im- 
mediate presence  had  not  been  indispensable  at  such 
times  to  the  stability  of  his  people.  The  largest  degree 
of  grace  ever  vouchsafed,  will  be  insufficient  to  stand 
against  the  smallest  device  of  Satan,  if  it  induce  you  to 
trust  to  what  you  are,  or  to  what  you  have,  instead  of 
sending  you  to  the  ever-flowing  fountain.  Never  are 
you  so  secure  as  when  you  lie  the  lowest ;  or  so  safe,  as 
when  you  are  content  to  go  out  of  yourself  for  all  you 
desire  or  need. 

Lastly,  this  state  of  spiritual  pride  and  self-confidence 
is  one  which  lays  the  believer  especially  open  to  all  the 
devices  of  Satan  connected  with  heresy  and  error.  1  do 
not  mean  to  say  that  other  Christians  are  never  misled 


94 


THE  DEVICES  OF  SATAN. 


by  these  things,  but  unquestionably  the  young,  the 
ardent,  the  spiritually  proud,  self-confident  Christian  is 
infinitely  more  exposed  to  them ;  and  such  characters 
will,  I  believe,  be  found  upon  examination  to  have 
formed,  in  all  ages  of  the  Church,  and  especially  in  the 
newly-revived  errors  now  afloat  among  us,  nine-tenths 
of  those  who  have  swelled  their  ranks.  There  is  some- 
thing so  gratifying  to  our  fallen  nature  in  being  more 
learned  than  those  around  us,  in  receiving  truths  which 
they  cannot  comprehend,  in  partaking  of  discoveries 
which  are  not  revealed  to  them ;  that  many,  very  many, 
even  of  God's  own  people,  especially  when  their  beset- 
ting sins  are  of  the  nature  just  alluded  to,  are  for  a  time 
misled  by  errors  which,  in  after  years,  they  look  back  upon 
with  shame,  grief  and  penitence.  To  guard  you  against 
this  device,  I  would  particularly  caution  you  not  to  trifle 
with  error.  Remember  that  when  God's  Word  declares, 
that  there  shall  be  "  certain  who  shall  privily  bring  in 
damnable  heresies,"  it  distinctly  establishes  this  solemn 
truth,  of  which  people  are  too  little  aware,  that  error  can 
damn  as  wrell  as  vice.  It  is  not  for  us  to  say  what  errors 
are  thus  dangerous;  but  neither  is  it  for  us  to  conceal  a 
truth  so  little  believed,  so  seldom  acted  upon,  and  yet  so 
certain  and  so  appalling. 

Do  not  trifle  with  error,  by  which  I  mean,  do  not  will- 
ingly read,  or  hear,  or  place  yourself  in  contact  with  error. 
Pray  to  be  u  kept  by  the  power  of  God"  from  every  thing 
which  shall  injure  your  singleness  of  eye,  and  singleness 
of  heart,  and  simplicity  of  view  of  Divine  truth.  These  are 
peculiarly  trying  times  for  such  characters  as  those  to 
which  I  am  now  referring;  if  you  know  youselves,  your 
own  peculiar  temptations,  your  own  besetting  sins/you 
will  be  most  watchful  agairtst  this  device  of  the  tempter, 
and  will  keep  at  a  distance  from  every  thing  which  will 


THE  DEVICES  OF  SATAN.  g% 

tend  to  favour  or  to  foster  it.  Remember  that  by  the 
law  of  God,  as  delivered  to  Moses,  the  Nazarite  who  was 
forbidden  to  drink  wine,  was  also  forbidden  to  eat  grapes. 
There  was  clearly  no  fear  lest  the  grapes  should  intoxi- 
cate him,  but  there  was  much  fear  lest  the  taste  of  the 
harmless  fruit  might  beget  in  him  the  love  and  desire  for 
the  forbidden  and  dangerous  spirit.  Do  not,  therefore, 
willingly  trust  yourself  upon  the  remotest  confines  of 
error;  if  you  would  avoid  the  danger,  do  not  be  misled  by 
the  specious  device  of  the  tempter,  that  you  must  read  the 
productions  of  those  who  »dirTer,  that  you  may  judge 
for  yourself.  No ;  thank  God  that  you  are  not  called  to 
pass  through  this  ordeal  to  enable  you  to  judge  for 
yourself.  If  we  know  what  truth  is,  we  know  what 
error  is,  without  studying  error :  just  as  by  knowing  what 
harmony  is,  we  know  what  is  discord,  without  having 
our  ears  set  on  edge  to  learn  it.  Thank  God  that  you 
have  his  Word  and  his  Spirit,  and  that  they  are  all- 
sufficient  to  teach  you  to  discern  error,  without  wading 
through  its  mischievous  and  destructive  volumes. 

But  the  time  warns  me  to  conclude. 

The  subject  we  have  now  been  considering  would  still 
be  left  in  a  very  imperfect  state,  were  we  to  conclude  our 
remarks  upon  it  thus.  I  shall  therefore  hope  in  the  next 
discourse  to  bring  before  you  some  considerations  which 
will  naturally  grow  out  of  this  important  subject.  In 
the  mean  time  may  we  be  led,  by  what  we  have  already 
seen,  to  think  far  more  scripturall}7  of  the  spiritual  dan- 
gers to  which  we  are  exposed,  that  we  may  guard  more 
circumspectly,  and  pray  more  earnestly  for  the  abiding 
presence  and  aid  of  Him  who  has  crushed  the  serpent's 
head,  and  who  will,  by  his  Divine  power  and  grace,  en- 
able you,  the  weakest  and  feeblest  of  his  followers,  to  be 
come  more  than  conquerors  through  him  that  loveth  you 


SERMON  VIII. 

THE  DEVICES  OF  SATAN. 


EPHESIANS  vi.   11. 
That  ye  may  be  able  to  stand  against  the  wiles  of  the  devil. 

IT  has  been  the  object  of  the  two  last  discourses  to  lay 
before  you  a  few  of  the  most  common  and  most  danger- 
ous devices  of  our  great  spiritual  enemy,  in  the  hope, 
and  with  the  prayer,  that  some  minds  may  be  enlighten- 
ed, some  hearts  encouraged,  some  souls  comforted,  amid 
the  trials  and  the  dangers  of  the  Christian  life.  My  in- 
tention at  present  is  to  offer,  by  the  help  of  God's  good 
Spirit,  such  further  suggestions  upon  this  important  sub- 
ject, as  may  tend  to  carry  the  remarks  which  have  been 
already  made  to  a  more  definite  and  practical  result. 

The  arrangements  I  shall  adopt  this  morning  will  be, 
first,  to  speak  of  some  of  the  reasons  for  which  it  pleases 
God  to  permit  his  people  to  be  tempted;  then,  to  review 
some  of  the  assistances  which  God  bestows  under  tempta- 
tion ;  and  lastly,  to  offer  some  encouragements  to  those 
who  are  tempted. 

Before  commencing  upon  this,  however,  I  must  en- 
deavour to  remove  one  difficulty  which  may  not  unna- 
turally suggest  itself  to  the  mind  of  every  reflecting 
Christian,  while  striving  to  profit  by  the  considerations 
already  brought  before  you.  It  is  of  this  nature.  If,  as 

96 


THE  DEVICES  OF  SATAN. 


97 


the  Word  of  God  assures  me,  "  the  heart  is  deceitful  above 
all  things,  and  desperately  wicked,"  how  shall  I  be  en- 
abled  to  ascertain,  of  any  particular  temptation  which 
assails  me,  whether  it  be  the  offspring  of  my  own  evil 
imagination,  and  therefore  has  its  rise  and  origin  within 
my  own  breast,  or  whether  it  come  from  without,  and  is 
the  inspiration  of  the  spirit  of  wickedness  and  sin? 

This  is  an  extremely  difficult  point  to  determine,  and 
in  offering  a  few  very  brief  remarks  upon  it,  I  would  not 
be  understood  to  speak  with  the  same  degree  of  con- 
fidence as  upon  those  things  which  are  the  subjects  of 
express  revelation,  for  here  we  can  only  give  the  opinion 
and  experience  of  men,  not  the  word  of  God  ;  of  eminent 
Christians,  indeed,  but  still  merely  of  uninspired  mortali- 
ty. Following,  then,  the  guide  of  Christian  experience, 
we  should  say  that  one  of  the  most  decisive  points  of 
distinction  is  this;  that  when  sin  is  the  natural  birth  of 
our  hearts,  it  grows  up  leisurely,  and  by  degrees ;  it  does 
not  rush  upon  us  at  once  in  an  overwhelming  flood,  but 
is  thought  of  and  ruminated  upon,  and  viewed,  perhaps, 
at  first,  with  reluctance,  but  soon  with  complacency,  in 
all  its  different  bearings ;  and  then  entered  upon  gradually 
from  its  lighter  to  its  deeper  shades  of  criminality  and 
guilt.  For  even  a  Heathen  writer  has  handed  down  to 
us  the  observation,  that  no  man  becomes  in  an  instant 
deeply  abandoned.  But  when  sin  comes  immediately 
from  the  devil,  there  are  none  of  these  gradations,  and 
it  is  remarkable  for  its  suddenness  and  abruptness.  It 
rushes  in  at  once  upon  the  thoughts,  and  we  are  hurried 
away^  without  time,  or  reflection,  or  consideration,  into 
transgression.  It  is,  perhaps,  on  this  account  that  the 
devices  of  Satan  are  compared,  in  the  passage  of  Scrip- 
ture from  which  the  text  is  taken,  to  "  fiery  darts,"  which 
can  be  cast  in  a  moment,  and  carrying  sudden  destruc- 

9 


98 


THE  DEVICES  OF  SATAN. 


tion  to  the  soul.  Two  other  methods  of  deternJning 
this  difficult  point  are,  by  the  nature  of  the  sins  to  which 
we  are  tempted,  and  the  effect  they  have  on  our  minds 
and  on  our  hearts. 

The  nature  of  the  sin.  Some  of  the  most  horrible 
and  dreadful  sins  that  can  be  conceived  are  referred  in 
the  Scriptures  of  truth  to  the  direct  agency  of  Satan; 
profane  and  blasphemous  thoughts  of  God,  murder,  and 
especially  self-murder.  To  this  sin,  through  the  instru- 
mentality of  Job's  wife,  Satan  tempted  that  holy  patri- 
arch ;  to  this  sin  the  devil,  in  his  own  person,  tempted 
the  Saviour  of  the  world,  when,  having  placed  him  upon 
a  pinnacle  of  the  temple,  he  said,  "  Cast  thyself  down." 
To  this,  again,  he  tempted  successfully  the  miserable 
Judas,  for  we  are  expressly  told  that  Satan  entered  into 
him  before  he  engaged  in  his  last  dreadful  deed  of  blood. 
If  the  nature  of  the  temptation  is  thus  in  some  degree  a 
proof  of  the  source  from  which  it  flows,  so  also  is  its 
effect  upon  our  own  minds  and  hearts.  For  instance, 
suppose  that  the  moment  an  evil  suggestion  arises  in 
your  soul,  you  feel  an  unspeakable  degree  of  loathing 
and  abhorrence;  this  is  a  strong  presumptive  evidence 
that  it  is  the  work  of  an  enemy  from  without ;  the  heart 
does  not  usually  feel  such  violent  dislike  and  hatred  for 
sins  which  it  has  itself  engendered.  This  then  is  a 
favourable  sign  to  the  tempted  believer,  and  one  which, 
if  followed  up  by  fervent,  faithful,  persevering  prayer, 
will  usually  be  succeeded  by  victory  over  temptation  and 
the  tempter. 

But  enough  has  been  said  upon  this  portion  of  our 
subject.  We  proceed  now  to  the  consideration  of  some 
of  the  reasons  for  which  our  heavenly  Father  of  his 
mercy  and  goodness  permits  many,  nay,  all  his  children 


THE  DEVICES  OF  SATAN. 


99 


nuring  their  pilgrimage  state,  to  suffer  from  the  wiles  of 
the  devil. 

How  essential  a  portion  of  our  subject  this  is,  may  be 
gathered  from  the  fact,  that  we  so  often  feel  inclined  to 
wonder,  and  even  to  murmur,  that  when  once  brought 
among  the  number  of  God's  people,  we  do  not  experience 
more  freedom  from  these  attacks.  "  If  I  were  indeed  a 
child  of  God,  I  should  not  be  thus  continually  harassed 
and  disturbed  by  temptation,"  is  often  the  language  of 
of  our  hearts.  "  I  was  told  that  religious  ways  were 
ways  of  pleasantness  and  peace,  but  I  am  incessantly 
suffering  from  both  internal  and  external  disquietudes." 
This  mistake  arises  from  our  not  fully  understanding  the 
nature  of  the  life  to  which  we  are  called.  When  you 
become,  not  merely  in  name,  but  in  heart  and  in  soul,  a 
Christian,  you  must  remember  that  you  become  a  sol- 
dier, not  a  conqueror ;  that  you  are  called  to  "  fight,"  and 
to  "run,"  and  to  "wrestle,"  (all  these  are  terms  which 
are  applied  to  the  Christian  life,)  to  enter  upon  a  course 
of  difficulty  and  trial,  not  upon  a  season  of  enjoyment 
and  rest.  The  Christian  life,  compared  with  the  happi- 
est worldly  life,  is  unquestionably  pleasantness  and 
peace;  but  compared  with  "the  rest  which  remaineth 
for  the  people  of  God,"  it  ever  has  been,  and  ever  will  be, 
full  of  disquietudes  and  trouble;  or  why  should  our 
Lord  himself  have  told  us  first  to  sit  down  and  count 
the  cost?  You  ought,  therefore,  to  expect  to  meet  with 
these  spiritual  assailants  and  spiritual  difficulties;  and 
the  following  are  among  the  many  reasons  we  might 
offer,  for  which  our  heavenly  Father  sees  good  that  it 
should  be  so. 

Temptation  or  trials  are  most  effectual  tests  of  our 
Christian  graces.  Thus  the  full  extent  of  Abraham's 
faith  would  never  have  been  known  to  the  Church  of 


100 


THE  DEVICES  OF  SATAN. 


God,  had  it  not  been  tried  by  God  himself;  and  the 
reality  and  depth  of  Job's  sincerity  and  patience  would 
have  been  equally  unknown,  had  they  not  been  subjected 
to  the  temptations  of  Satan.  Our  heavenly  Father, 
therefore,  permits  you  to  be  tempted,  to  bring  out  your 
Christian  graces  and  your  holy  obedience  into  far  more 
abundant  fruit-bearing  to  the  honour  of  his  name,  thus 
in  the  end  working  for  you  a  far  more  exceeding  and 
eternal  weight  of  glory. 

While  the  temptations  of  Satan  are  producing  this 
good  and  valuable  effect  upon  your  Christian  graces, 
they  are  often  producing  equally  salutary  effects  upon 
the  darker  and  more  unholy  portion  of  your  Christian 
character.  For  instance,  you  are  perhaps  beginning  to 
feel  the  risings  of  spiritual  pride,  for  ever  springing  up 
out  of  the  remains  of  natural  corruption  even  in  the  re- 
newed heart ;  then  does  God  permit  your  spiritual  enemy 
to  tempt  you,  that  so  the  very  feeling  of  your  liability  to 
sins,  which  you,  perhaps,  with  some  degree  of  self-com- 
placency, hoped  you  had  for  ever  cast  beneath  your  feet, 
may  tend  to  humble  you  and  lower  you  in  your  own 
opinion,  to  show  you  what  is  in  your  heart,  and  to  de- 
stroy these  first  buddings  of  pride.  It  was  thus  that  God 
permitted  St.  Paul  to  suffer  from  a  thorn  in  the  flesh, 
which  he  expressly  says,  "  was  a  messenger  of  Satan 
to  buffet  him,"  not  because  he  had  actually  become 
proud  and  self-sufficient,  but  lest  he  should  be  lifted  up ; 
lest  he  should  grow  proud,  through  the  abundance  of  the 
revelations  which  was  vouchsafed  him. 

In  this  case,  therefore,  the  temptation  was  permitted 
by  God  as  a  preventive  to  feelings  which,  if  suffered 
to  grow  up,  might  have  endangered  the  spiritual  life  and 
peace  of  the  apostle. 

There  are  yet  other  and  minor  motives  from  which  it 


1 


THE  DEVICES  OF  SATAN. 


101 


probably  pleases  our  heavenly  Father  to  subject  us  to 
the  fiery  trial  of  temptation.  For  instance,  to  enable  us 
wisely  to  counsel  and  thoroughly  to  sympathize  with 
those  who  are  tempted.  It  was  a  frequent  saying  of 
the  great  Martin  Luther,  that  "  temptation,  meditation, 
and  prayer  can  alone  make  a  minister."  He  who  has 
never  been  deeply  tried  and  exercised  in  his  own  heart, 
will  never  be  able  to  say  with  St.  Paul,  "  We  are  not 
ignorant  of  Satan's  devices,"  and  therefore  will  never  be 
able  wisely  and  feelingly  to  counsel  those  who  are  in 
"  danger  through  manifold  temptations."  It  is  when  we 
have  often  ourselves  smarted  from  the  fiery  darts  of  the 
enemy,  that  we  know  best  the  method  of  his  attacks,  and 
the  quarters  from  which  they  are  to  be  expected,  and 
that  we  can  instrumen  tally  assist  the  suffering  and  tempted 
believer  so  to  hold  up  the  shield  of  faith  as  effectually  to 
quench  these  weapons  of  the  evil  one. 

It  is  on  this  account  also,  that  aged  and  experienced 
Christians  are  usually  far  more  tolerant,  and  far  more 
lenient  and  kind  in  their  judgment  of  their  sinning  bre- 
thren, than  the  young  and  untempted  believer.  They 
best  know  the  power  of  Satan  and  the  weakness  of  their 
own  hearts  ;  they  best  know  that  if  they  have  stood 
where  others  have  fallen,  the  strength  and  the  courage 
and  the  merit  are  not  their  own  ;  and  therefore  while 
they  say,  "  Not  unto  us,  O  Lord,  not  unto  us,  but  to  thy 
name  be  the  praise,"  they  can  truly  and  feelingly  sym- 
pathize with  every  fellow  Christian  who  is  suffering  from 
those  devices  which  they  have,  through  the  undeserved 
mercy  of  their  Redeemer,  overcome  or  escaped. 

But,  probably,  above  all  other  reasons,  the  Almighty 
permits  us  to  be  thus  tried  and  tempted  that  we  may  not 
fix  ourselves  too  strongly  and  root  our  ourselves  too 
firmly  here  below,  but  may,  in  the  midst  both  of  worldly 


THE   __      r 


THE  DEVICES  OF  SATAN. 


and  spiritual  prosperity,  know  something  experimentally 
of  the  Psalmist's  feeling,  "  O  that  I  had  wings  like  a 
dove,  for  (hen  would  I  flee  away  and  be  at  rest."  Blessed 
is  that  trial,  be  it  what  it  may,  if  it  in  any  degree  strengthen 
this  desire  (so  wholly  unknown  to  the  ungodly)  to  be  for 
ever  with  the  Lord,  and  to  behold  his  glory. 

Without  dwelling  at  greater  length  upon  the  reasons 
for  which  a  merciful  God  frequently  permits  even  his 
dearest  children  to  be  exposed  for  a  time  to  the  devices 
of  the  wicked  one,  enough  has,  I  trust,  been  said  to  de- 
monstrate (for  this  is  my  chief  object)  that  it  is  perfectly 
compatible  with  the  wisdom  and  power,  and  even  with 
the  love  and  mercy  of  God,  that  such  things  are  permit- 
ted ;  and  I  shall  therefore  proceed  to  consider  some  of 
those  assistances  and  supports  which  God  in  mercy 
bestows  upon  his  tempted  children,  that  they  may  be 
able  to  "stand  against  the  wiles  of  the  devil." 

The  first  of  these  is  the  "  sword  of  the  Spirit,  which 
is  the  Word  of  God." 

This  is  the  only  offensive  weapon  which  you  can  suc- 
cessfully use  against  our  powerful  adversary.  Even  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  condescended  to  wield  this  weapon. 
When  Satan  tempted  him,  he  replied  to  every  one  of 
the  three  temptations  by  a  quotation  from  the  written 
Word,  probably  to  encourage  us  by  the  thought  that 
even  the  eternal  Son  of  the  Father,  with  all  the  infinity 
of  weapons  in  heaven's  own  armoury  at  his  command, 
chose  to  select  his  arrows  from  the  same  quiver  which  is 
open  to  you  and  to  myself,  to  the  very  weakest  and  the 
most  helpless  of  his  followers. 

When  Satan  therefore  approaches,  go  to  the  quiver  of 
God's  Word,  and  draw  your  arrows  thence,  and  Satan 
shall  as  certainly  fly  from  you  as  he  fled  from  the  sword 
of  your  Leader. 


•         THE  DEVICES  OF  SATAN.  ]  Q3 

But,  brethren,  before  you  can  do  this,  it  is  not  enough 
that  the  Bible  is  in  your  houses,  it  must  often  be  in  your 
hands,  and  its  truths  treasured  up  in  your  memories,  and 
in  your  hearts.  It  is  because  men  know  so  little  of  God's 
Word,  that  they  are  so  utterly  helpless  under  tempta- 
tion. Were  you  in  the  habit  of  daily  attentive  reading, 
and  searching  that  Word  of  God,  it  would  be  impossible, 
with  all  his  cunning  and  all  his  resources,  for  the  devil 
to  bring  any  single  temptation,  from  the  grossest  and 
most  insulting,  to  the  highest  and  most  refined,  for  which 
you  would  not  be  able  immediately  to  find  an  appro- 
priate and  successful  reply.  Let  us  take  some  common 
instances :  were  he  to  tempt  you  to  theft,  or  to  drunken- 
ness, or  to  covetousness,  you  might  say  in  reply,  "It  is 
written,"  "  Be  not  deceived:  neither  thieves,  nor  covetous, 
nor  drunkards,  shall  inherit  the  kingdom  of  God."  Were 
he  to  tempt  you  to  gross  licentiousness,  "  It  is  written," 
"Whoremongers  and  adulterers  God  shall  judge."  To 
Sabbath-breaking,  "  It  is  written,"  "  Remember  the  Sab- 
bath-day to  keep  it  holy."  To  fear  man  rather  than 
God,  "  It  is  written,"  "  Fear  not  them  which  can  kill 
the  body,  and  after  that  have  no  more  that  they  can  do." 
Were  he  to  tempt  you  to  doubt  of  your  Lord's  power  or 
willingness  to  save  your  soul  from  hell,  "  It  is  written," 
"  All  power  is  given  unto  me  in  heaven  and  in  earth ;" 
and  again,  "  Him  that  cometh  unto  me,  I  will  in  no 
wise  cast  out."  Thus,  in  the  treasury  of  God's  Word, 
you  will  find  "  It  is  written,"  an  answer,  and  an  effectual 
one,  to  every  temptation  which  Satan  can  present.  It  is 
the  only  certain  method  of  resisting  this  powerful  enemy ; 
the  method  which  your  Lord  himself  adopted,  and  which 
your  heavenly  Father  has  from  the  beginning  most 
abundantly  blessed. 

As  the  written  Word  is  the  one  great  offensive  weapon, 


[Q4  THE  DEVICES  OF  SATAN.       • 

so  is  constant,  faithful,  fervent  prayer,  the  one  great  de- 
fensive weapon,  in  resisting  "  the  wiles  and  devices  of 
the  devil." 

When  you  feel  a  temptation  injected  into  your  thoughts, 
or  your  affections,  betake  yourself  at  once,  to  secret, 
silent,  prayer.  You  cannot  be  in  any  company,  in 
which  a  Christian  ought  to  be,  you  cannot  be  engaged 
in  any  occupation  in  which  a  Christian  ought  to  engage, 
or  be  partaking  of  any  amusement  of  which  a  Christian 
ought  to  partake,  which  would  render  the  aid  of  silent, 
ejaculatory  prayer  misplaced,  or  impossible.  By  thio 
you  may,  in  a  moment,  remove  yourself  from  the  neigh, 
bourhood  of  the  tempter,  to  the  footstool  of  a  throne  ol 
grace.  By  this  you  may  hide  yourself,  as  it  were,  under 
the  very  wings  of  Omnipotence,  through  which  no 
weapons  of  Satan's  armoury,  no  dart  from  Satan's  bow, 
can  ever  penetrate.  The  tempted  believer,  taking  re 
fuge,  by  faithful,  heartfelt  prayer,  beneath  the  shadow  of 
the  everlasting  wings,  is,  as  regards  the  wiles  of  Satan, 
as  secure,  as  Noah  was,  while  in  the  ark  of  God's  love, 
from  all  the  storms  and  tempests  of  the  flood  which 
drowned  the  world.  For  it  is  this  which  realizes  your 
union  with  your  Lord,  and,  by  close  and  intimate  com- 
munion, brings  you  at  once  to  him,  who,  while  Satan  is 
engaged  in  tempting  you,  is  himself  engaged  in  praying 
for  you ;  yes,  in  unceasing  intercession,  that  though 
"Satan  has  desired  to  have  you,  your  faith  fail  not;" 
and  therefore,  like  his  of  old,  it  shall  not  fail,  but  "  shall 
be  found  unto  praise  and  honour  and  glory  at  the  appear- 
ing of  Jesus  Christ." 

In  conclusion,  I  would  offer  a  few  words  of  encourage- 
ment to  you  who  "  suffer,  being  tempted." 

There  are,  we  believe,  few,  if  any,  of  the  real  people 
of  God  who  do  not  suffer  from  the  wiles  and  devices  of 


9      THE  DEVICES  OF  SATAN. 

. 

Satan,  and  this  to  a  far  greater  degree  than  the  people  of 
the  world.  Of  those  who  are  living  without  God,  we 
have  the  authority  of  God's  own  Word  for  saying,  at 
least  as  a  general  rule,  that,  "  they  come  in  no  misfor- 
tune like  other  folk,"  they  are  exempt  from  many  of  the 
most  trying  mental  exercises  of  which  the  mind  of  man 
is  susceptible.  They  are,  as  the  same  Word  assures  us, 
already  in  "  snare  of  the  devil,  taken  captive  by  him  at 
his  will;"  and  therefore  his  end  is  gained,  he  has  no 
need  of  wiles  and  devices  to  effect  what  is  already 
effected;  his  only  effort  with  regard  to  them,  is  to  lull 
and  to  soothe  and  to  satisfy  and  to  keep  them,  that  they 
may  neither  perceive  their  thraldom,  nor  feel  their  chains, 
until  the  iron  has  entered  into  their  soul,  and  is  for  ever 
riveted  in  the  fires  of  eternity.  But  with  you,  who  are 
really  endeavouring  to  follow  Christ,  the  case,  thank 
God,  is  widely  different,  and  Satan  knows  and  feels  it  to 
be  so.  He  knows  that  an  all-powerful  Saviour  has 
engaged  for  your  protection  and  salvation;  that  however 
he  may  rage  and  foam  and  struggle,  he  is  himself  as 
completely  in  the  Saviour's  power,  as  you  are,  and  that 
the  time  is  short  in  which  he  will  be  permitted  to  disturb 
and  harass  the  people  of  God,  before  he  is  consigned  to 
"  the  blackness  of  darkness  for  ever."  Therefore  are 
his  efforts  great  and  terrible  and  unceasing,  but  the  very 
cause  from  which  they  spring  ought  to  form  one  of  your 
strongest  grounds  of  encouragement. 

You  have  the  assurance  of  your  God,  that  Satan  can 
do  nothing  without  his  permission.  If  not  a  "  sparrow 
fall  to  the  ground  without  your  Father,"  then  most  cer- 
tainly shall  not  his  children  stumble  or  fall  without  his 
providential  permission.  While  you  seek  him,  he  has 
declared  that  "  your  footsteps  shall  not  slide."  While 


THE  DEVICES  OF  SATAN.       % 

you  serve  him,  his  Word  is  pledged  to  you,  "  I  will 
never  leave  thee,  nor  forsake  thee." 

Whatever,  therefore,  be  the  efforts  of  Satan  against  the 
welfare  of  your  soul,  you  are  secure  of  these  two  most 
blessed  facts;  that  your  God,  who  has  pledged  himself 
not  to  "  suffer  you  to  be  tempted  above  what  you  are 
able,  but  with  the  temptation  to  make  a  way  to  escape," 
is  aware  of  your  trial,  and  that  he  is  present  during  your 
trial;  what  more  can  you  desire  or  need ? 

It  is  true  that  you  may  not  feel  sensible  of  these  most 
comforting  truths  at  the  moment  you  need  them  most, 
but  then  you  must  not  blame  God  for  this,  you  must  say 
with  David,  "  this  is  mine  infirmity;"  they  are  equally 
the  immutable  truths  of  God,  and  if  you  forget  them,  or 
derive  no  consolation  from  them,  it  neither  alters  their 
truth  nor  their  stability,  for  the  "  foundation  of  the  Lord 
standeth"  equally  "  sure,"  and  his  promises  shall  not 
fail.  You  may,  indeed,  "  lose  sight  of  him  by  the  way," 
this  depends  upon  yourself;  but  you  shall  assuredly  find 
him  at  the  journey's  end,  for  that  depends  upon  God, 
whose  covenant  is  an  everlasting  covenant,  ordered  in  all 
things,  and  sure.  Therefore,  brethren,  "  be  strong  in 
the  Lord,  and  in  the  power  of  his  might;  take  unto  you 
the  whole  armour  of  God,  that  ye  may  be  able  to  with- 
stand, in  the  evil  day,  and  having  done  all,  to  stand." 

Let  every  tried  and  tempted  soul  among  us  throw 
aside  all  other  dependencies,  and  rest  calmly  and  con- 
tentedly upon  these  two,  the  strongest  and  the  best,  God's 
promises  and  God's  omnipotence,  pledged  as  they  are  to 
us,  through  Jesus  Christ,  for  every  hour  of  trial  or  of 
suffering.  In  this  blessed  and  comforting  and  soul-satis- 
fying assurance  we  shall  obtain  fresh  grace,  fresh  strength, 
fresh  resolution,  to  "  run  with  patience  the  race  that  is 


THE  DEVICES  OF  SATAN. 

* 

set  before  us,  looking  unto  Jesus,  the  Author  and  Finisher 
of  our  faith ;"  who  has  not  only  placed  his  own  foot  upon 
that  serpent's  head,  but  will,  in  his  good  time,  place  there 
in  triumph  the  foot  of  the  weakest  and  the  tenderest  of 
his  redeemed  and  purchased  people ;  to  him,  with  the 
Father  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  be  all  honour  and  glory  for 
ever  and  ever 


SERMON  IX. 

THE  SOLEMN  SEARCH, 


ZEPHANIAH  i.  12. 

And  it  shall  come  to  pass  at  that  time,  that  I  will  search ,  Jerusa- 
lem with  candles,  and  punish  the  men  that  are  settled  on  their 
lees :  that  say  in  their  heart,  the  Lord  will  not  do  good,  neither 
will  he  do  evil. 

IN  every  congregation,  there  are  many  different  classes 
of  hearers;  among  them,  perhaps,  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant, and  most  prominent,  is  that  to  which  such  re- 
markable allusion  is  made  in  the  words  I  have  just  read 
to  you.  Men  who  have  become  accustomed  to  the  sound 
of  the  Gospel;  men  to  whom  its  threatenings  and  its 
promises  are  so  well  known,  that  its  threatenings  excite 
little  apprehension,  and  its  promises,  little  delight ;  men 
upon  whose  ear  the  strongest  appeals  to  their  consciences, 
the  most  blessed  invitations  of  a  Saviour's  love,  fall  un- 
heeded ;  men  who  live  in  a  state  of  quiet  without  safety, 
of  repose  without  security,  and  of  peace  without  one 
well-grounded  hope  of  peace.  Their  state  has  been 
described  in  several  passages  of  Holy  Writ,  under  the 
very  expressive  metaphor  of  "  settling  on  their  lees,"  or 
on  their  dregs;  a  simile  very  natural  from  the  lips  of 
those  who  lived  in  a  land  of  vineyards,  and  to  whom  the 
sight  of  casks  of  the  wine  of  their  country,  which  had 
108 


THE  SOLEMN  SEARCH. 


109 


remained  unmoved  and  unagitated  for  years  together, 
must  have  been  of  daily  occurrence. 

We  find,  therefore,  the  prophet  Jeremiah  adopting  it 
in  one  of  the  most  striking  of  his  predictions,  when  he 
says,  "  Moab  hath  been  at  ease  from  his  youth,  and  he 
hath  settled  on  his  lees,  and  hath  not  been  emptied  from 
vessel  to  vessel,  neither  hath  been  into  captivity;  there- 
fore his  taste  remaineth  in  him,  and  his  heart  is  not 
changed.  Therefore,  behold  the  days  come,  saith  the 
Lord,  that  I  will  send  unto  him  wanderers,  that  shall 
cause  him  to  wander,  and  shall  empty  his  vessels  and 
break  their  bottles." 

There  appears,  indeed,  to  be  no  state  of  mind  which 
the  Almighty  views  with  more  displeasure,  and  which 
he  exerts  himself  (if  we  may  so  say)  more  constantly  to 
overcome  or  to  punish,  than  this  cold,  dead,  phlegmatic 
state  of  the  affections  and  the  heart,  which  God  himself 
has  denominated  a  "  settling  on  our  lees."  Against  this 
it  is,  that  the  warning  of  the  text  is  most  peculiarly 
pointed,  and  against  this  it  is,  that  I  feel  called  by  the 
present  season  more  especially  to  exhort  and  to  warn  and 
to  counsel  you  this  day. 

May  the  Spirit  of  God  make  his  own  Word  "  quick 
and  powerful,  and  sharper  than  any  two-edged  sword, 
piercing  even  to  the  dividing  asunder  of  soul  and  spirit, 
and  of  the  joints  and  marrow,  as  a  discerner  of  the 
thoughts  and  intents  of  the  heart." 

The  first  portion  of  the  text  describes,  under  a  very 
familiar  figure,  the  exceeding  carefulness  and  accuracy 
with  which  the  Almighty  will  carry  on  his  search  after 
these  men  of  whom  we  have  been  speaking,  "  I  will 
search  Jerusalem  with  candles."  Intending  to  imply, 
"  No  house,  however  obscure,  throughout  the  whole  city, 
no  recess  or  closet  in  that  house  capable  of  containing  one 

10 
\ 


I  ]  0  THE  SOLEMN  SEARCH. 

of  these  delinquents  for  whom  I  look,  shall  escape  my 
search.  For  if  the  light  of  day  be  insufficient,  I  will 
bring  even  lamps  and  torches  to  the  search,  rather  than 
omit  a  single  individual  who  is  thus  slighting  and  dis- 
honouring me."  It  is  not  improbable  that  the  expression 
is  here  used  by  God  to  meet  the  infidelity  and  the  atheism 
of  those  who,  according  to  this  same  prophet,  exclaimed, 
"The  Lord  sees  not,  neither  doth  he  regard."  Why 
doth  he  not?  because  he  wants  light?  "  Well  then," 
says  God,  "I  will  supply  the  deficiency;  I  will  search 
Jerusalem  with  candles,  and  you  shall  learn  whether  I 
can  neither  see  nor  regard." 

The  second  portion  of  the  text  marks  out,  with  a  pe- 
culiar degree  of  distinctness,  the  character  and  the  fate 
of  those  for  whom  this  search  was  undertaken.  "  I  will 
punish  the  men  who  are  settled  on  their  lees ;  that  say 
in  their  heart,  The  Lord  will  not  do  good,  neither  will 
he  do  evil." 

It  appears  at  first  sight  strange  to  us,  that  if  God  be 
about  to  utter  warnings,  and  to  foretell  punishments  upon 
Jerusalem,  this-sbould  be  the  class  of  persons  whom  he 
should  especially  visit;  that  if  about  to  institute  so 
accurate  a  search,  these  should  be  the  only  persons 
mentioned. 

The  reason,  brethren,  is  this, — the  open  sinner,  the 
thief,  the  adulterer,  the  drunkard,  the  murderer,  is  known 
and  read  of  all  men;  there  is  no  need  of  fresh  warnings 
of  condemnation  upon  him,  and  no  necessity  for  candles 
to  search  him  out ;  the  very  strictness  of  the  search  marks 
not  only  the  determination  of  God  to  discover  all  for 
whom  he  seeks,  but  at  the  same  time  that  he  is  looking 
for  delinquents  whose  crimes  are  not  written  upon  their 
foreheads,  and  their  characters  blazoned  forth  as  the 
noonday.  Now  this  is  precisely  the  case  at  all  times, 


THE  SOLEMN  SEARCH. 


Ill 

and  in  all  places,  with  the  class  of  persons  of  whom  we 
speak.  There  may  be  nothing  in  the  outward  life  and 
conversation  of  any  individual  among  us  this  day,  which 
shall  distinctly  pronounce  this  man  to  be  "  settled  down 
upon  his  lees,"  to  be  living  in  an  unholy  and  false  se- 
curity; and  yet  who  will  venture  to  assert  that  there  may 
not  be  many  among  us  at  this  moment,  who,  in  the  sight 
of  God,  are  precisely  the  characters  described,  and  warn- 
ed and  threatened,  in  the  text. 

May  the  Lord  reveal  these  persons  to  themselves,  and 
show  them  the  difference  between  the  true  and  settled 
peace  of  the  children  of  God,  and  the  false  and  de- 
structive peace  of  those  who  are  dwelling  in  this  ruinous 
security. 

To  aid  in  this  important  work  shall  be  my  first  en- 
deavour, and  to  advise  and  counsel  those  who  may  stand 
self-convicted,  shall  be  my  second  endeavour  this  morn- 
ing. 

The  first  class  of  persons,  which  falls  the  most  ob- 
viously and  undeniably  under  the  description  of  the  text, 
is  formed  of  those,  if  such  there  are,  who  live  in  that 
state  of  practical  forgetfulness  of  God,  so  significantly 
expressed  by  those  who  say  in  their  heart,  "  The  Lord 
will  not  do  good,  neither  will  he  do  evil."  Who  have 
no  care  whatever  for  the  God  who  made,  and  the  Sa- 
viour who  redeemed  them  ;  who  scarcely  ever  bestow  a 
thought  upon  him.  Yet  these  are  not  the  avowed  ene- 
mies of  God  ;  they  do  not  profane  his  name  as  the  com- 
mon swearer  does;  nor  deny  it  as  the  Atheist  does;  nor 
dishonour  it  in  their  daily  conversation  as  the  loose  or 
profane  talker  does.  No ;  the  text  says  expressly, 
"  They  say  in  their  hearts,"  and  probably  never  hint  at 
it  with  their  lips;  but  their  heart  is  full  of  practical  in- 
fidelity, they  believe  that,  neither  good  nor  evil  comes 


H2  THE  SOLEMN  SEARCH. 

from  God ;  they  attribute  it  to  chance,  fortune,  accident, 
any  thing  but  God,  to  whom  they  would  be  ashamed  to 
refer  it.  The  truth  is,  that  God  is  not  at  all  in  their 
thoughts ;  they  do  not  openly  array  themselves  against 
him,  they  content  themselves  with  utterly  forgetting  him. 
Against  these,  and  such  as  these,  although  they  may 
pass  well  in  society,  as  honest  and  honourable,  and 
amiable  and  upright,  God  has  denounced  his  vengeance 
when  he  said,  "  The  wicked  shall  be  turned  into  hell, 
and  all  the  people  who  forget  God."  Yes,  uncharitable 
as  mar^might  esteem  it  in  his  fellow-man,  God  himself 
has  declared  that  he  will  know  no  difference  on  the  great 
day  of  account,  between  the  man  who  openly  sins  against 
God,  and  the  man  who  contents  himself  with  forgetting 
him. 

Are  there  any  among  you  to  whom  this  distinguishing 
mark  is  not  experimentally  unknown  ?  Who,  when  you 
rise  in  the  morning,  begin  the  day  by  forgetting  God? 
When  you  go  forth  to  your  daily  avocations,  seek  not  his 
blessing?  When  you  return  to  your  comforts  and  your 
pleasures,  acknowledge  not  his  hand?  When  you  retire 
to  rest,  close  the  day  with  the  same  forgetfulness  of  God 
with  which  you  opened  it?  You  will  at  least  need  no 
tongue  to  tell  you  that  you  have  altogether  "settled  upon 
your  lees,"  and  are  in  a  peculiar  manner  the  objects  of 
the  threatening  of  the  text.  Your  efforts  are  all  for  the 
world ;  its  business  or  its  pleasures  occupy  your  every 
thought  and  desire  and  feeling.  You,  then,  have  need 
to  tremble  at  the  warning  of  the  text,  for  the  God  who 
dictated  it  speaks  expressly  to  yourselves,  and  says,  "  Re- 
joice, O  young  man,  in  thy  youth,  and  let  thy  heart 
cheer  thee  in  the  days  of  thy  youth,  and  walk  in  the 
ways  of  thine  heart,  and  in  the  sight  of  thine  eyes  :  but 


THE  SOLEMN  SEARCH. 


113 


know,  that  for  all  these  things,  God  will  bring  thee  into 
judgment." 

But  yet  again,  and  another  class  presents  itself;  you 
who  have  not  profited  by  the  chastenings  and  the  judg- 
ments of  God  upon  others,  or  upon  yourselves  during  the 
last  twelvemonth.  There  is  no  stronger  mark  than  this 
of  a  soul  sunk  in  carnal  and  deadly  security.  What  do 
we  think  of  the  thief  who  robs  even  beneath  the  gallows  ? 
What  does  God  think  of  that  man  who,  when  God's 
judgments  have  been  around  him,  and  perhaps  even 
entered  his  own  house,  and  struck  down  his  worldly 
prosperity,  or  blighted  his  affections,  or  disappointed  his 
hopes,  is  still  the  same  unthinking,  careless,  God-forget- 
ing  being  that  he  ever  was?  Alas!  how  many  among 
us  will  this  convict?  How  many,  for  instance,  who, 
when  the  fears  of  the  approaching  pestilence*  had  driven 
them  to  their  knees,  no  sooner  found  it  had  pleased  a 
merciful  Father  so  to  temper  it,  in  our  visitation,  that  it 
bore  little  resemblance  to  the  pest  which  had  depopulated 
less  favoured  regions,  than  they  at  once  settled  down 
again,  and  from  that  hour  to  the  present,  perhaps,  have 
hardly  felt  a  single  earnest  hearty  desire  for  near  com- 
munion with  God,  or  devotedness  to  his  will  and  to  his 
ways.  How  many  more  who,  while  the  chastening 
hand  of  God  was  upon  themselves,  or  those  they  love, 
became  at  once  among  the  most  humble  of  his  followers, 
but  no  sooner  felt  it  was  withdrawn  than  they  sank  into 
the  same  security  from  which  they  had  been  so  forcibly 
drawn  and  so  painfully  aroused. 

Brethren,  there  is  nothing  so  provoking  to  a  God  who 
chastens  only  that  he  may  awaken  and  save,  as  this 
neglect  of  judgments.  If  he  beholds  in  any  one  instance 

*  The  cholera  in  1833. 


THE  SOLEMN  SEARCH. 

among  you  such  conduct,  be  assured  that  if  he  have 
purposes  of  mercy  for  that  soul,  he  will  increase  his 
judgments,  and  repeat  his  visitations,  and  multiply  his 
chastenings  until  he  pour  you  out  from  off  your  dregs, 
whereon  you  are  settled,  and  empty  you  from  vessel  to 
vessel,  and  leave  untouched  none, — no,  not  one  of  those 
things  on  which  your  hearts  have  dwelt  and  your  souls 
are  fixing.     It  is  God's  invariable  method!     It  is  in- 
scribed, though  we  see  it  not,  upon  half  the  tombstones 
which  fill  our  burying-grounds ;  it  is  written  in  every 
page  of  God's  revealed  Word.     Listen  only  to  the  fourth 
chapter  of  the  prophet  Amos,  where  you  find  this  method 
of  God's  dealing  detailed   at  considerable  length.     "  I 
have  given  you  cleanness  of  teeth  (or  famine)  in  all  your 
cities :  yet  ye  have  not  returned  unto  me,  saith  the  Lord." 
What  comes  next?     "I  have  smitten  you  with  blasting 
and  mildew :  yet  ye  have  not  returned   unto  me,  saith 
the  Lord."     What  then?     "  I  have  sent  among  you  the 
pestilence  after  the  manner  of  Egypt:  yet  have  ye  not 
returned  unto  me,  saith  the  Lord."     What  further?     "I 
have  overthrown  some  of  you,  as  God  overthrew  Sodom 
and  Gomorrah :  yet  have  ye  not  returned  unto  me,  saith 
the  Lord."     And  how  does  all  this  conclude?     "  There- 
fore thus  will  I  do  unto  thee :  Prepare  to  meet  thy  God, 
O  Israel."     Wave  follows  wave  in  thick  and  rapid  suc- 
cession, judgment  follows  judgment,  yet   all   without 
avail ;  they  were  as  deaf  to  the  voice  of  vengeance  as 
they  have  long  been  to  the  voice  of  mercy,  so  "  settled 
on  their  lees'*  that  nothing  can  shake  them :  then  does 
God  draw  the  remaining  arrow  from   his  quiver,  and 
verify  the  words  of  the  Psalmist,  "  Thine  arrows  are 
sharp  in  the  hearts  of  thine  enemies,"  by  calling  them 
to  immediate  and  inevitable  judgment. 


THE  SOLEMN  SEARCH. 


U5 


But  we  have  still  another  class  to  whom  to  address  a 
word  of  warning  and  of  exhortation. 

You  who  neglect  to  benefit  by  ordinances,  and  though 
the  Word  of  God  be  in  your  ears,  do  not  hear  it, — that 
is,  do  not  cherish  it  in  your  hearts  and  practise  it  in  your 
lives, — listen  to  the  manner  in  which  God  has  described 
conduct  precisely  such  as  this  by  the  mouth  of  his 
prophet  Zechariah,  "  They  made  their  hearts  as  an 
adamant  stone,  lest  they  should  hear  the  law,  and  the 
words  which  the  Lord  of  hosts  hath  sent ;  therefore  came 
a  great  wrath  from  the  Lord  of  hosts."  And  the  manner 
in  which  this  wrath  was  manifested  is  told  us  in  the  fol- 
lowing verse  :  "  Therefore  it  is  come  to  pass,  that  as  he 
cried  and  they  would  not  hear ;  so  they  cried  and  I 
would  not  hear,  saith  the  Lord  of  hosts." 

The  hearing,  of  the  want  of  which  the  Lord  here 
accuses  his  people,  is  not  the  mere  hearing  of  the  ear, 
but  the  hearing  of  the  heart.  "  They  made  their  hearts 
as  adamant,  that  they  should  not  hear."  Brethren,  are 
you  all  free  from  this  sign  of  carnal  security  ?  Perhaps 
there  never  was  a  time  when  more  outward  attention  to 
the  Word  of  God  was  manifested,  than  during  the  past 
twelvemonth  ;  but  has  there  been  the  hearing  heart?  has 
the  Word,  whether  read  or  preached,  or  expounded, 
brought  forth  fruit  ?  Is  there  a  deeper  and  stronger  con- 
viction of  sin  ?  Is  there  less  of  worldliness  and  vanity 
and  folly  ?  "  What  do  ye  more  than  others  ?"  was  our 
Lord's  inquiry  of  his  own  disciples,  and  is,  at  the  present 
moment,  of  ourselves.  It  is  vain  to  say,  We  hear  more ; 
we  attend  ordinances  more ;  or  even  we  know  more.  In 
the  passage  that  I  have  read  to  you,  you  will  observe, 
that  it  was  the  state  of  the  heart  of  which  God  com- 
plained, and  by  which  alone  he  calculates  the  value  of 
the  hearing  ear,  or  the  talking  tongue.  Is  your  heart 


U6  THE  SOLEMN  SEARCH. 

penetrated  with  a  holy  abhorrence  of  sin,  of  all  sin,  even 
your  most  favourite,  and  is  it  filled  with  the  love  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ?  Is  there  more  of  the  practical  influ- 
ence of  God's  truth  in  your  lives?  More  real,  heartfelt 
respect  to  his  hallowed  day,  and  his  revealed  wilt ;  more 
of  its  amiable  and  blessed  features  in  your  tempers? 
More  of  charity,  more  of  humility,  more  of  sincerity? 
"  By  their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them,"  saith  the  Lord. 
If  not,  although  you  never  may  have  omitted  a  single 
opportunity  when  this  house  of  prayer  has  been  opened, 
or  the  Lord's  table  has  been  spread,  you  may  yet  be  un- 
moved upon  the  dregs,  and  therefore  yet  among  the 
number  of  those  of  whom  the  Lord  has  said,  "These 
will  I  punish."  Still  one  other  class  must  be  briefly 
alluded  to.  You  who  are  really  born  again  of  the  Spirit, 
who  have  well -grounded  hopes  of  your  pardon  and 
acceptance,  who  look  to  Christ  for  a  free  and  full  salva- 
tion, and  have  settled  down,  1  will  not  say,  into  an 
Antinomian  state  of  lethargy,  but  stiji  into  far  too  near 
an  approach  to  it ;  who  have  lost  your  first  love,  and 
your  first  zeal,  and  your  first  earnestness,  and  have  grown 
remiss  in  secret  duties,  and  slothful  in  your  more  public 
duties,  and  feeling  a  fancied  security  as  to  the  safety  of 
your  own  souls,  take  far  too  little  thought  for  the  souls 
of  those  around  you,  and  make  far  too  few,  or  shrink 
altogether  from,  self-denying  exertions  for  the  comfort 
and  happiness  and  welfare  of  those  with  whom  you  live. 
Perhaps  you  scarcely  know  yourselves  under  this  descrip- 
tion. The  Lord  enlighten  and  awaken,  that  he  may 
not  be  compelled  also  to  trouble  and  to  punish  you. 

But  it  is  time  that  I  should  offer  a  few  hints,  though 
they  must,  be  brief,  by  which  we  may  all  awaken  from 
a  state  of  false  and  dangerous  security.  And  in  these  I 
especially  address  myself  to  you  who  are  not  theoretically 


THE  SOLEMN  SEARCH. 

ignorant  of  the  great  truths  of  the  Gospel;  but  who 
know,  and  who  hold  them  in  a  cold,  dull,  inoperative, 
and  uninfluential  manner. 

If  you  would  be  free  then  from  this  spiritual  drowsi- 
ness, keep  yourself  in  spiritual  exercise.  We  have  all 
heard  of  cases  when  a  man  must  be  roused,  and  shaken, 
and  walked  about,  to  keep  him  from  a  sleep,  from  which 
he  would  no  more  awaken,  and  from  which  nothing  but 
the  constant  motion  of  the  body  preserves  him.  So  it  is 
with  you.  Nothing  will,  under  God's  grace,  tend  so 
much  to  rouse  you  from  the  state  we  have  been  describ- 
ing, as  constant  spiritual  exercise.  Be  frequent  then, 
especially  in  secret  religious  duties,  in  prayer,  reading, 
meditation,  self-examination,  and  converse ;  but  do  not 
confine  yourselves  to  them ;  you  must  exercise  more 
publicly  your  Christian  graces,  as  well  as  perform  these 
private  and  necessary  duties.  Exercise  your  faith  in 
difficulties,  your  meekness  under  provocation,  your  pa- 
tience in  affliction,  your  charity  and  kindness  in  relieving 
the  wants,  or  adding  to  the  comfort  and  happiness  of 
those  around  you.  If  these  opportunities  do  not  readily 
occur,  seek  for  them.  Be  always  doing  something,  how- 
ever small,  for  the  honour  and  glory  of  God.  Work  for 
the  poor,  visit  the  poor,  minister  to  the  poor ;  teach  in 
our  schools,  assist  missionary  societies,  unite  your  exer- 
tions for  the  better  observance  of  the  Lord's  day ;  do 
something,  do  any  thing,  if  your  time  and  circumstances 
will  allow,  rather  than  be  spiritually  idle.  It  is  only  by 
constant  activity  that  you  can  keep  your  souls  awake. 
For  all  have  found,  and  you  will  assuredly  find,  that 
whenever  you  give  up  spiritual  exercises  you  will  fall 
into  carnal  security  of  some  kind  or  other. 

Again,  as  another  remedy  for  this  spiritual  drowsiness, 


THE  SOLEMN  SEARCH. 

this  "  settling  upon  the  lees,"  keep  God  always  in  your 
sight,  live  much  with  Jesus,  have  close  communion  with 
the  Holy  Ghost.  Even  the  most  heedless  child  pays 
some  attention  when  he  is  beside  his  father ;  even  the 
worst  servant,  who  yields  but  an  eye-service,  does  not 
sleep  while  the  master's  eye  is  upon  him.  Realize  more, 
then,  of  the  presence  of  God  every  hour  of  every  day ; 
see  him  in  your  chamber,  in  your  office,  in  your  shop, 
in  your  rides,  in  your  walks,  in  society,  in  the  church ; 
never  leave  his  side,  never  forget  that  he  is  close  at  hand, 
seeing,  hearing,  knowing  every  thing.  While  conscious 
of  the  nearness  of  such  a  witness,  you  will  up  and  be 
doing,  and  like  the  apostle,  whatever  you  do,  even  to 
eating  and  drinking,  you  will  "  do  all  to  the  glory  of 
God." 

Lastly,  to  guard  against  this  dangerous  security,  look 
often  at  the  lapse  of  time,  the  nearness  of  death,  the  cer- 
tainty of  approaching  judgment.  If  any  thing  will  pre- 
vent you  from  settling  on  your  lees,  if  any  thing  will 
rouse  you  from  your  slumbers,  by  God's  help  this  will 
do  so. 

Think  you  that  there  is  one  here  present,  who,  if  he 
heard  at  this  hour  the  awful  summons,  "  Thou  fool,  this 
night  thy  soul  shall  be  required  of  thee,"  would  close 
his  eyes  one  moment  in  sleep  before  that  summons  was 
fulfilled  ?  There  would  be  no  slumber,  no  lethargy,  no 
drowsiness  there !  How  would  he  watch  each  hour  of 
the  departing  day!  With  what  feelings  would  he  behold, 
for  the  last  time,  the  sun  sinking  down  into  the  west! 
How  attentively  would  he  listen  as  each  hour  of  dark- 
ness passed  away,  and  how  zealously  would  he  pray,  how 
carefully  would  he  converse,  or  how  silently  and  thought- 
fully would  he  meditate  while  the  last  few  hours  of  life 


THE  SOLEMN  SEARCH. 


119 


were  running  out !  Where  would  vanity,  woildliness, 
covetousness,  folly,  be  at  such  a  time  ?  What  would  the 
world  and  all  its  possessions  be  worth  at  such  a  season  ? 
Not  one  hour's  purchase.  And  who  will  dare  venture 
to  say  that  they  are  certainly  worth  more  to  him  to-day? 
Who,  when  he  looks  around  upon  this  congregation,  and 
feels  the  positive  certainty,  that  ere  this  season  again  re- 
turns some,  nay  many,  will  have  heard  and  obeyed  that 
solemn  summons;  who  can  retire  from  this  house  to 
dream  away  the  coming  twelvemonth,  as  he  has  dreamt 
away  the  last  ?  Surely  it  is  the  worst  of  madness  not 
to  be  aroused  and  to  bestir  ourselves  when  death  and 
judgment,  heaven  and  hell,  are  at  the  door.  May  the 
Spirit  of  God  make  us  all  more  in  earnest  than  we  have 
ever  been  in  the  great  work  which  lies  before  us.  Reli- 
gion must  be  every  thing,  or  it  is  nothing.  Therefore, 
"  Whatsoever  thy  hand  findeth  to  do,  do  it  with  thy 
might,  for  there  is  no  work,  nor  device,  nor  knowledge 
in  the  grave,  whither  thou  art  hastening."  Were  you 
ever,  are  you  now,  conscious  that  you  have  sins  to  be 
given  up,  unholy  practices  to  be  discontinued,  ungodly 
company  or  pleasures  to  be  forsaken, — do  it  at  once,  do 
it  to-day.  You  have  long  enough  experienced  the  folly 
and  the  falsehood  of  doing  it  to-morrow,  therefore  do  it 
to-day.  Leave  not  this  house  of  prayer  until  you  have 
solemnly,  earnestly,  and  from  your  inmost  soul,  besought 
God  to  give  you  both  the  will  and  the  power,  to  strengthen 
the  holy  resolution  which  you  now  find  rising  in  your 
mind,  and  to  carry  it  out  into  full  and  permanent  effect. 
O,  it  is  fearful  to  think  that  there  should  be  one  soul 
among  us,  lost  to  all  eternity,  by  neglecting  the  counsel 
of  God,  and  by  settling  down  again  upon  the  dregs  of 
carelessness,  formality,  selfishness,  and  sin! 


}2Q  THE  SOLEMN  SEARCH. 

LET   US    PRAY. 

Stir  up,  we  beseech  thee,  O  Lord,  the  hearts  and  wills 
of  thy  people,  that  while  many  are  sleeping  around  us 
the  deep  sleep  of  death,  we  may  have  grace  to  devote 
ourselves,  our  souls  and  bodies,  to  thy  holy  and  happy 
service ;  that  we  may  follow  the  Lord  fully,  without 
hesitation  and  without  reserve,  thinking  nothing  too  dear 
to  sacrifice  at  thy  bidding,  and  nothing  too  hard  to  under- 
take at  thy  command ;  that  when  thou  comest  we  may 
be  among  the  blessed  number  of  those  who  are  waiting 
and  watching,  with  their  loins  girt  and  their  lamps  burn- 
ing, to  go  in  with  thee  and  for  ever  be  partakers  at  the 
marriage  supper  of  the  Lamb. 


SERMON  X. 

THE  LORD  OUR  RIGHTEOUSNESS. 


JEREMIAH  xxxin.  6. 

This  is  the  name  by  which  he  shall  be  called,  the  Lord  our 
Righteousness. 

OP  all  the  blessed  titles  of  the  Redeemer,  most  blessed, 
most  consolatory,  most  delightful  to  the  heart  of  every 
true  child  of  God,  is  this.  "  The  Lord  our  Righteous- 
ness ;"  conveying,  as  it  does,  to  the  believer,  in  the  very 
name  by  which  his  Lord  and  his  Redeemer  was  an- 
nounced, his  own  undoubted  charter  to  an  inheritance 
beyond  the  skies.  But  even  while  we  record  this  great 
and  blessed  truth,  it  is  impossible  not  to  fear  that  there 
may  be  some,  and  some  who  bear  the  name  of  Christian, 
to  whom  this  glorious  appellation  conveys  no  such  dis- 
tinct and  definite  impression.  Some  who  hear  it  as  a 
mere  distinctive  title,  as  they  would  hear  the  Saviour 
called,  "  The  Root  and  Offspring  of  Jesse,"  or  "  The 
bright  and  morning  Star,"  or  by  any  other  of  those  names 
of  glory,  with  which  the  Word  of  God  delights  to  de- 
signate the  Saviour  of  the  world. 

It  shall  be  our  object,  then,  to  endeavour  to  give  such 
a  simple  exposition  of  this,  the  highest  and  the  best  of  all 

11  121 


122  TIIE  LORD  OUR  RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

those  terms  of  honour  with  which  the  name  of  Jesus  has 
been  crowned,  that  no  individual  may  leave  this  house 
to-day  unable — would  to  God  that  we  might  hope  that 
no  individual  should  leave  it  unwilling — to  realize  all 
the  meaning  and  all  the  comfort  of  the  name,  and  to 
exclaim,  with  a  deep  and  grateful  sense  of  self-appro- 
priation, "  The  Lord  my  Righteousness." 

The  great  and  blessed  doctrine,  then,  which  we  con- 
ceive to  be  proclaimed  to  the  Church  of  God  by  the 
words  before  us,  is  this:  that  when  the  promised  Re- 
deemer should  come,  who  is  plainly  predicted  in  the 
verse  which  precedes  the  text,  he  should,  as  the  Prophet 
Daniel  expresses  it,  "  make  an  end  of  sins,  and  make  a 
reconciliation  for  iniquity,  and  bring  in  everlasting  right- 
eousness." It  is  with  the  last  clause  of  this  verse  more 
particularly  that  we  have  now  to  do.  Jesus  was  to  be 
called  "  The  Lord  our  Righteousness,"  because  by  the 
perfect  obedience  of  his  life,  by  the  entire  submission  of 
his  death,  by  the  infinite  value  of  his  ransom,  he  wrought 
out  and  brought  in  such  a  perfect  and  everlasting  righteous- 
ness, as  man  could  not  even  conceive,  as  angels  and  arch- 
angels could  not  emulate,  and  as  God  himself  could  not 
refuse. 

Now,  brethren, — and  I  address  you  as  those  who  have 
joined  this  morning  not  in  word  only,  but  in  heart  and 
in  soul,  in  the  scriptural  services  of  our  Church;  and 
when  you  prayed,  a  Have  mercy  upon  us,  miserable  sin- 
ners," felt  convinced  that  you  had  many  sins  which  had 
need  of  pardon,  and  many  painful  short-comings,  even 
in  your  purest  actions  and  in  your  holiest  duties,  both  to 
God  and  to  your  neighbours ;  and  I  would  ask  you  if 
the  choice  were  your  own,  freely  offered  you  at  this 
moment  by  our  heavenly  Father,  of  all  that  would,  ac- 
cording to  your  own  ideas  of  your  own  sinfulness  and 


THE  LORD  OUR  RIGHTEOUSNESS. 


123 


infirmity,  most  forward  the  spiritual  welfare  of  your  souls, 
what  would  you  require?  Feeling,  as  we  have  supposed 
you  do,  your  own  utter  incapacity  to  escape  from  the 
condemning  power  of  the  law ;  feeling  that  it  ever  has 
and  ever  must  convict  you  of  sin,  even  when  desiring 
and  striving  and  praying  and  labouring  to  be  the  most 
righteous  before  God;  what  should  you  desire  in  a 
Saviour,  if  God  were  to  give  you  your  own  choice,  and 
put  into  your  hands  a  blank  to  fill  it  up  in  that  manner 
which,  according  to  your  finite  comprehension,  would 
make  the  way  of  salvation  the  plainest,  and  the  road  to 
heaven  the  easiest,  and  a  perfect  righteousness  the  most 
accessible,  to  such  poor,  sinful  creatures  as  ourselves?  I 
conceive  that  the  reply  of  every  one  who  is  in  earnest  in 
this  great  matter;  of  every  one  who  has  ever  striven  and 
stumbled,  and  again,  by  God's  grace,  risen  and  striven, 
and  then  by  his  own  waywardness  and  infirmity  stumbled 
and  fallen  again ;  would  be  something  of  a  nature  simi- 
lar to  this ;  It  is  much  to  have  a  perfect  model  set  before 
me ;  but  then,  alas !  I  cannot  imitate  it ;  it  is  still  more 
to  have  guiding  and  strengthening  grace  so  freely  offered 
me  (and  how  unspeakably  do  I  value  it) ;  but  still,  when 
I  have  done  all,  I  am  but  an  unprofitable  servant,  and 
how  can  I  be  fit  to  appear  before  a  perfect  God?  Would, 
therefore,  that  there  might  be  such  an  infinite  perfection, 
such  an  infinite  supply  of  righteousness  treasured  up  in 
Christ  Jesus,  that  there  should  be  enough  for  all,  enough 
for  me ;  that  when  I  stand  before  the  bar  of  God,  and 
feel  overwhelmed  with  the  consciousness  of  my  past 
transgressions,  and  upon  looking  at  my  righteousness, 
see  even  the  best  of  them  to  be  as  an  unclean  thing,  as  a 
polluted  garment,  I  might  be  enabled  to  look  at  him 
who  stands  at  God's  right  hand,  and  claim  his  righteous- 
ness as  mine  own,  and  plead  his  merits  for  mine,  and  be 

• 


124  THE  LORD  OUR  RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

allowed  his  obedience  to  stand  for  mine ;  and  that  all  the 
wonderful  perfections  of  his  life,  all  the  matchless  merits 
of  his  death,  might  be  as  much  my  own  as  if  I  had 
walked  in  perfectness  from  my  cradle  to  my  grave,  and 
had  been  one,  in  whose  every  most  secret  thought  and 
word  and  feeling  and  action,  a  God  of  perfect  purity 
had  been  "  well-pleased." 

What  would  be  the  feeling  with  which  you  would 
hear,  in  reply,  from  the  lips  of  the  living  God,  if  as  a  true 
and  humble  penitent  you  have  closed  with  the  offers  of 
the  Saviour,  and  fled  to  his  great  atonement  for  accept- 
ance, "  Son,  it  is  done  as  thou  hast  said.  The  Saviour 
whom  I  have  sent  is  called,  or  appointed  to  be  c  the  Lord 
thy  Righteousness;5  not  only  all  that  thou  hast  ever 
owed  has  he  abundantly  and  fully  paid ;  not  only  all 
thy  sins  have  been  once  and  for  ever  laid  on  him,  but  all 
his  righteousness  is  once  and  for  ever  laid  on  thee ;  hence- 
forth, throughout  eternity  thou  art  to  me  as  one  clad  in 
those  garments  of  righteousness  and  salvation,  which  be- 
long to  the  only-begotten  Son."  Can  we  receive 'any 
thing  more  blissful  to  the  soul  of  the  poor  trembling,  yet 
deeply  penitent  and  believing  sinner,  than  an  assurance 
such  as  this.  Pardon  and  grace  and  strength  and  perse- 
verance are  indeed  most  blessed  boons,  but  here  is  one 
which  outweighs  them  all,  which  restores  to  the  human 
soul  that  image  of  God  which  Adam  defaced  and  ruined, 
and  which  clothes  it  in  a  righteousness  infinitely  more 
perfect,  infinitely  more  valuable  in  the  sight  of  God,  than 
Adam's  could  have  ever  been,  had  he  remained  to  this 
hour  the  spotless  tenant  of  his  earthly  paradise. 

But  delightful  as  is  the  belief  that  such  are  really  the 
promises  of  God  with  reference  to  this  great  subject, 
there  are  some,  perhaps,  who  would  most  willingly  and 
gratefully  apply  them  to  themselves,  if  only  they  could 


THE  LORD  OUR  RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

believe  that  they  were  indeed  contained  in  God's  own 
Word,  and  not  a  mere  portion  of  the  divinity  system  of 
some  human  teacher. 

I  shall  proceed  then  to  demonstrate  what. I  have  now 
asserted,  that  you  may  examine  the  Word  of  God  for 
yourselves,  and  see  whether  these  things  be  so. 

In  doing  this,  I  shall  pass  by  the  strikingly  corrobora- 
tive declarations  of  the  prophet,  "  in  the  Lord  have  I 
righteousness  and  strength ;  and  of  the  apostle,  the 
righteousness  of  God  is  "  unto  all,  and  upon  all  them 
that  believe,"  with  many  similar,  confining  myself  to  the 
application  of  a  single  passage  *,  for  if  the  mouth  of  Him 
who  cannot  lie  hath  spoken  it,  it  will  be  as  convincing 
to  his  people,  and  as  certain  and  unquestionable  to  their 
hearts,  if  it  be  but  in  a  single  word,  as  if  it  were  blazoned 
upon  every  page  and  written  in  every  chapter  of  the  Bible. 

The  passage  then  which  I  should  select  as  one  among 
the  many  foundation-stones  of  this  great  doctrine,  is  at 
the  close  of  the  fifth  chapter  of  Romans,  "  For  as  by  one 
man's  disobedience  many  were  made  sinners,  so  by  the 
obedience  of  one  shall  many  be  made  righteous." 

The  apostle  here  distinctly  draws  the  parallel  between 
the  disobedience  of  the  first  Adam  and  the  obedience  of 
the  second  ;  and  he  says,  u  As"  by  the  first,  many  have 
been  made  sinners,  "  So,"  or  in  the  same  manner,  by 
the  second,  "  shall  many  be  made  righteous."  It  is  evi- 
dent, then,  that  there  is  no  force  whatever  in  the  assertion 
of  the  apostle,  unless  the  method  by  which  the  righteous- 
ness of  Christ  is  said  to  make  us  righteous,  be  precisely 
analogous  to  the  method  by  which  the  sin  of  Adam  is 
said  to  make  us  sinners.  Now,  no  true  Christian,  how- 
ever he  may  feel  upon  the  point  immediately  before  us, 
will  hesitate  for  a  moment  as  to  the  scriptural  view  of 
the  effects  of  Adam's  sin.  No  true  Christian  denies  that 

n* 


12(5  THE  LORD  OUR  RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

all  mankind  fell  when  Adam  fell ;  that  as  our  federal 
head,  what  he  did,  we  are  considered  to  have  done ;  and 
that  in  consequence,  as  God's  Word  repeatedly  declares, 
we  come  into  the  world  with  a  load  of  unpardoned  guilt 
upon  our  souls.  Born  in  sin,  for  in  sin  did  our  mothers 
conceive  us,  the  most  innocent  infant  in  the  world,  until 
cleansed  by  the  application  of  the  blood  of  Christ,  is  a 
child  of  wrath,  even  as  others.  This  was  the  manner, 
then,  in  which,  by  the  disobedience  of  one,  all  have  been 
made  sinners ;  not  by  a  mere  following  the  example  of 
Adam,  as  the  Pelagians  do  vainly  talk,  and  as  our  Ninth 
Article  expressly  contradicts,  but  by  the  inherent  taint  of 
a  corrupt  and  fallen  nature,  stamped  with  the  deadly  im- 
press of  its  great  progenitor's  primeval  sin. 

This,  then,  is  the  manner  also  in  which  many,  nay 
every  child  of  God,  is  made  righteous.  The  moment 
you  are  born  into  the  family  of  earth,  the  sin  of  Adam  is 
laid  upon  you,  and  cleaves  to  you,  and  becomes  your 
sin ;  the  moment  you  are  born  into  the  family  of  God, 
the  righteousness  of  Christ  is  laid  upon  you,  and  remains 
upon  you,  and  becomes  your  righteousness.  From  that 
hour  you  are,  as  the  apostle  expresses  it,  "  complete  in 
Christ,"  and  being  so  complete,  you  plead,  with  rever- 
ence and  deep  humility  be  it  spoken,  you  plead  your 
acceptance  at  the  hands  of  God's  justice,  according  to  the 
terms  of  the  covenant  with  the  Eternal  Son ;  and  that 
covenant  having  been  published,  God  is,  as  St.  John  de- 
clares, "  Righteous  and  just  to  forgive  you  your  sins, 
and  to  cleanse  you  from  all  unrighteousness."  For  it  is 
thus  arid  thus  only  that  the  words  of  the  Holy  Ghost  can 
be  fulfilled,  that,  "as  by  one  man's  disobedience  many 
were  made  sinners,  so  by  the  obedience  of  one  shall 
many  be  made  righteous."  It  is  thus  that  "  Christ  is  the 
end  of  the  law  for  righteousness  to  every  one  that  be- 


THE  LORD  OUR  RIGHTEOUSNESS. 


127 


lieveth  ;"  and  that  it  pleases  God  to  admit,  and  to  reward, 
as  if  it  were  the  personal  righteousness  of  every  one  of 
his  believing  people,  this  perfect  obedience  to  the  Incar- 
nate Son.  In  the  clay,  then,  that  by  the  act  of  sove- 
reign grace  you  close  with  the  offers  of  your  Redeemer, 
he  becomes  "  the  Lord  your  righteousness ;"  in  his 
"obedience  even  unto  death,"  i.  e.,  from  the  cradle  to 
the  cross,  you  are  by  God's  mercy  clothed ;  a  wedding 
garment,  well  worthy  of  that  wedding  feast  to  which  he 
has  purchased  your  admittance.  Arrayed  in  this,  the 
poorest,  weakest,  most  ignorant  sinner  among  ourselves 
shall  not  be  ashamed,  when  invited  to  sit  down  with 
Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob,  and  all  the  saints  of  God,  at 
the  marriage  supper  of  the  Lamb.  For  the  highest  and 
most  glorious  guest  in  that  assembly  shall  have  no  better, 
I  may  say,  shall  have  no  other  garment  than  yourself. 
"  We  overcame  by  the  blood  of  the  Lamb,"  shall  be  the 
only  watchword  which  shall  enable  you  to  pass  through 
the  gate  of  the  heavenly  citadel ;  "  We  are  clothed  in 
the  righteousness  of  the  Lamb,"  the  only  declaration 
which  shall  admit  you  to  the  table  of  the  heavenly 
banquet. 

Brethren,  I  trust  I  do  not  state  this  great  and  glorious 
truth  in  language  stronger  than  Scripture  warrants,  or 
than  the  true  people  of  God,  in  every  age,  have  adopted. 
Hear  only  the  words  of  that  great  luminary  of  our  Church, 
the  judicious  Hooker,  "  The  righteousness  wherein  we 
must  be  found,"  he  says,  "  if  we  will  be  justified,  is  not 
our  own  ;  therefore  we  cannot  be  justified  by  any  in- 
herent quality Although,  then,  in  ourselves 

we  be  altogether  sinful  and  unrighteous,  yet  even  the 
man  who  is  impious  in  himself,  full  of  iniquity,  full  of 

sin,  him  being  found  in  Christ,  through  faith, 

him  God  beholdeth  with  a  gracious  eye,  puttelh  awav 


128  THE  LOKD  OUI1  RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

his  sin  by  not  imputing  it,  taketh  away  the  punishment 
due  thereto  by  pardoning  it,  and  accepteth  him  in  Christ 
Jesus,  as  perfectly  righteous  as  if  he  had  fulfilled  all  that 
was  commanded  of  him  in  the  law — shall  1  say,  more 
perfectly  righteous  than  if  himself  had  fulfilled  the  whole 
law  ?  I  must  take  heed  what  I  say ;  but  the  apostle 
saith,  '  God  made  him  to  be  sin  for  us,  who  knew  no 
sin,  that  we  might  be  made  the  righteousness  of  God  in 
him.'  Such  we  are  in  the  sight  of  God  the  Father,  as 
is  the  very  Son  of  God  himself.  Let  it  be  counted  folly, 
or  phrensy,  or  fury,  or  whatsoever,  it  is  our  comfort  and 
our  wisdom;  we  care  for  no  knowledge  in  the  world  but 
this,  that  man  hath  sinned,  and  God  hath  suffered,  that 
God  hath  made  himself  the  Son  of  man,  and  that  men 
are  made  the  righteousness  of  God."  Surely,  then,  we 
may  well  add,  in  the  glowing  language  of  a  dignitary  of 
our  Church  of  a  former  day,  "  Had  I  all  the  faith  of  the 
patriarchs,  all  the  zeal  of  the  prophets,  all  the  good  works 
of  the  apostles,  all  the  sufferings  of  the  martyrs,  I  would 
renounce  the  whole,  in  point  of  dependence,  and  glory 
only  in  the  atoning  blood,  and  justifying  righteousness 
of  Jesus  Christ,  my  Lord." 

In  conclusion,  brethren,  the  practical  inquiry  which 
arises  out  of  this  high  subject,  is  simply  the  question 
which  each  man's  heart  alone  can  answer.  "  Is  the 
Saviour  of  whom  I  have  this  day  heard,  the  Lord  my 
Righteousness?"  Do  you  ask,  how  is  this  to  be  deter- 
mined ?  What  is  the  act  of  faith  which  is  to  make  him 
mine?  We  reply,  the  first  great  point  is  that  to  which 
we  have  already  referred,  the  deep,  heartfelt,  uncompro- 
mising conviction  and  abhorrence  and  renunciation  of 
sin.  This  once  wrought  in  you  by  that  Holy  Spirit, 
whose  alone  prerogative  it  is  to  convince  the  world  of  sin, 
and  we  advance  one  step  farther, — we  come  to  the  act  of 


LORD  OUR  RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

0 

justifying  faith,  for  which  you  inquire ;  that  of  which 
all  Scripture,  all  experience,  all  living  believers,  all  dying 
saints,  all  blessed  martyrs,  all  pardoned  sinners  tell.  Now 
this  act  is  not  comprised  in  a  single  thought,  a  single  de- 
sire, a  single  word,  but  it  consists  in  a  state  of  mind,  of 
affections,  of  heart.  That  state  which  the  Holy  Spirit 
alone  can  work,  and  which,  where  his  Divine  influences 
are  sincerely  sought,  he  will  work  in  any  fallen,  corrupt, 
polluted  child  of  fallen  Adam;  that  state  which  enables 
you  to  leave  all  for  Christ,  to  seek  all  from  Christ,  and  to 
find  all,  and  more  than  all,  in  Christ. 

Brethren,  is  this  your  state  at  the  present  moment  ? 
Can  you  say,  from  your  heart,  There  is  no  sin,  no 
pleasure,  no  profit,  no  feeling  which  I  would  not  willingly 
sacrifice,  and  desire  to  sacrifice,  for  Christ's  sake,  if  God 
require  it?  There  is  no  act,  no  thought,  no  word,  no 
righteousness  of  mine,  with  which,  in  the  way  of  merit, 
I  would  desire  to  approach  God;  "my  best  is  nothing 
worth,"  all  are  vile,  all  are  polluted,  all  are  deserving 
rather  of  punishment  for  their  short-coming,  than  of  re- 
ward for  their  merits.  I,  therefore,  give  up  all,  I  renounce 
all,  I  abhor  all,  if  put  in  competition  with  what  my  Sa- 
viour and  Redeemer  has  done  and  suffered  for  me ;  to 
that  and  to  that  alone  I  look ;  my  only  hope,  my  only 
solace,  my  only  and  all-sufficient  Saviour,  is  Jesus  Christ, 
the  Rock  of  Ages. 

Then,  brethren,  this,  as  regards  each  individual  among 
you,  so  thinking  and  so  acting,  is  the  name  whereby  God 
at  this  moment  calls  the  Divine,  the  Eternal  Son,  "  the 
Lord  your  Righteousness."  This  is  that  justifying  faith 
which  makes  you  one  with  God,  and  God  with  you; 
this  is  that  state  of  heart  and  affections,  which  all  preach- 
ing, all  reading,  all  meditation,  all  sacraments,  all  prayer, 
are  intended  instrumentally  to  produce,  or  to  build  up,  or 


THE  LORD  OUR  RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

I 

to  establish.  We  ask  nothing  more  for  you  and  for  our- 
selves, than  that  this  may  be,  not  a  momentary  impulse 
strongly  affecting  the  mind,  not  like  a  cloud  across  the 
sun,  changing  its  appearance  for  a  moment,  and  then 
passing  away  for  ever,  but  the  abiding,  settled,  habitual 
posture  of  our  affections  and  thoughts;  enabling  us  to 
say,  not  once,  but  for  ever,  "  The  life  which  I  now  live 
in  the  flesh,  I  live  by  the  faith  of  the  Son  of  God,  who 
loved  me  and  gave  himself  for  me," — "  not  having  mine 
own  righteousness,  which  is  of  the  law,  but  that  which 
is  through  the  faith  of  Christ,  the  righteousness  which  is 
of  God  by  faith." 

With  these  feelings,  to  you  "  to  live  will  be  Christ, 
and  to  die  will  be  gain,"  your  life  will  be  holy,  your 
death  peaceful,  your  end  glorious.  He  whom  you  have 
loved  and  worshipped  and  obeyed,  will  be  "  the  Lord 
your  Righteousness"  now,  the  Lord  your  everlasting  joy, 
and  your  infinite  happiness,  in  the  kingdom  of  his 
Father. 


SERMON  XL 

CONFESSING  CHRIST. 


MATTHEW  x.  32,  33. 

Whosoever  shall  confess  me  before  men,  him  will  I  confess  also 
before  my  Father  which  is  in  heaven.  But  whosoever  shall 
deny  me  before  men,  him  will  I  also  deny  before  my  Father 
which  is  in  heaven. 

THERE  is  something  peculiarly  great  and  ennobling 
in  true  Christianity.  It  refines  the  feelings,  elevates  the 
heart,  dignifies  the  manners,  while  it  converts  and  saves 
the  soul.  So  strikingly  is  this  the  case,  that  it  is  a  com- 
mon observation  of  those  who  have  enjoyed  the  largest 
intercourse  with  the  religious  poor,  that  they  could  in 
almost  all  cases  rightly  pronounce,  merely  from  externals, 
whether  the  inmates  of  a  cottage  have  been  really  brought 
into  the  household  and  family  of  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord. 
No  doubt  the  first  great  cause  of  this  is,  that  the  moment 
the  heart  comes  under  the  influence  of  Divine  grace,  it 
is  opened  to  the  action  of  a  multitude  of  thoughts  and 
impressions  of  a  far  higher  nature  than  have  ever  yet 
been  brought  to  bear  upon  it ;  and  while  exercised  in 
these,  it  necessarily  escapes  from  much  of  the  dross  and 
dust  and  pollution  of  that  lower  world  in  which  it  has 
been,  hitherto,  wholly  occupied  ;  it  becomes  conversant 

131 


132  CONFESSING  CHRIST. 

with  subjects  as  entirely  above  the  comprehension  of  the 
hjghest  created  intelligence,  as  they  are  above  its  own ; 
it  lives  much  in  the  contemplation  of  the  eternal;  it 
unites  daily,  not  only  with  the  wisest  and  noblest  and 
best  of  men  in  their  thoughts  and  prayers  and  medita- 
tions, but  it  goes  higher  still ;  it  has  one  subject  and  one 
feeling  and  one  song  with  angels  arid  archangels,  and 
with  all  the  host  of  heaven,  while  they  laud  and  magnify 
God's  glorious  name.  These  things  must  inevitably 
elevate  and  adorn  while  they  correct  and  sanctify ;  and 
the  widest  and  longest  experience  fully  proves  that  they 
do  so.  But  there  is  yet  another,  and  though  a  lower, 
still  unquestionably  a  very  influential  promoter  of  the 
same  great  effects.  This  is  to  be  found  even  in  the 
manner  in  which,  in  the  revealed  Word,  the  religion  of 
Jesus  is  proposed  to  us.  There  is  nothing  low,  nothing 
mean,  nothing  pitiful,  nothing  clandestine,  to  be  met 
with  throughout  the  whole  of  the  revelation  of  Christ. 
All  is  grand  and  open  and  noble ;  the  motives  of  the 
Gospel  are  all  as  honest  and  sincere  as  they  are  pure  and 
uncontaminated ;  the  precepts  of  the  Gospel  are  all  as 
distinct  and  unambiguous  as  they  are  lovely  and  of  good 
report;  the  policy  of  the  Gospel  is  all  as  straightforward, 
bold,  and  transparent,  as  it  is  holy,  good,  and  wise. 
Perhaps  there  is  nothing  which  so  completely  charac- 
terizes, and  at  the  same  time  identifies  the  religion  of 
Jesus  Christ  as  this ;  nothing  which  draws  so  decisive  a 
line  between  it  arid  every  false  religion;  and,  more  than 
this,  between  it  and  every  adulterated  religion,  every 
human  modification  of  the  true. 

It  would  not  be  difficult  to  find  a  thousand  examples 
to  illustrate  these  observations,  but  we  will,  content  our- 
selves with  the  corroboration  they  receive  from  the  single 
injunction  of  the  text!  Consider  for  a  moment  the  cir- 


CONFESSING  CHRIST.  ]  33 

cumstances  under  which  it  was  delivered,  the  time  when 
it  was  first  so  strongly  enforced,  and  you  cannot  but 
acknowledge,  that  if  it  stood  alone,  it  is  so  entirely  ad- 
verse to  the  dictates  of  a  carnal  policy,  so  completely 
contrary  to  what  man  would  term  the  interest  of  the 
faith  to  which  it  refers,  that  to  every  unprejudiced  mind, 
while  it  powerfully  corroborates  the  truths  to  which  I 
have  just  adverted  of  the  ennobling  character  of  the  Gos- 
pel, it  cannot  but  form  a  strong  additional  proof  of  the 
Divine  origin  of  a  religion  which  would  voluntarily  sub- 
ject itself  to  such  a  test.  The  Jews  had  just  before 
passed  a  law  that  whosoever  should  confess  Christ  to  be 
the  Messiah,  should  be  "  put  out  of  the  synagogue  ;"  in 
other  words,  should  be  excommunicated,  the  heaviest 
punishment  they  were,  at  that  period  of  their  history, 
empowered  legally  to  inflict.  The  Gentiles  would,  as 
the  omniscient  Saviour  perfectly  foreknew,  soon  establish 
an  ordinance,  that  he  who  should  dare  to  confess  Christ 
should  be  thrown  to  the  wild  beasts,  or  carried  to  the 
Btake.  All  human  probability,  therefore,  of  the  spread 
of  Christianity,  would  seem  to  rest  upon  the  fact,  during 
its  infancy,  of  its  quiet,  silent,  unobtrusive  progress,  and 
this  to  depend  upon  the  great  tact  and  management  in 
the  mode  in  which  it  was  promulgated,  to  rely  almost 
for  its  existence  on  the  judicious  reserve  which  its  fol- 
lowers should  evince  in  preaching  the  peculiar  truths  of 
the  Gospel ;  and  that  therefore  not  merely  its  prosperity, 
but,  as  I  have  said  before,  its  very  existence,  would  de- 
pend upon  the  concealment  and  secrecy  of  its  few  and 
timid  and  powerless  followers.  It  was  in  the  very  face 
of  all  these  opposing  circumstances,  in  contradiction  to 
every  dictate  of  human  policy  and  worldly  expediency, 
that  our  Lord  delivered  the  declaration  of  the  text, 
"Whosoever  shall  confess  me  before  men,  him  will  I 

12 


CONFESSING  CHRIST. 

confess  before  my  Father  which  is  in  heaven.  But 
whosoever  shall  deny  me  before  men,  him  will  I  also 
deny  before  my  Father  which  is  in  heaven."  It  is 
hardly  possible  to  conceive  a  declaration  which,  to  the 
worldly  wise  and  worldly  prudent,  must  have  sounded 
so  ill-timed,  so  injudicious,  so  insane,  so  suicidal.  Never- 
theless, upon  this  command,  the  Saviour  was  content  to 
take  his  stand,  and  in  the  face  of  a  world's  hatred,  and  a 
world's  opposition,  to  require  his  followers  boldly  and 
plainly  to  confess  their  allegiance  to  him ;  and  in  spite 
of  the  obvious  dangers  thus  (not  indeed  counted,  but 
certainly  not  in  any  degree  evaded),  to  plant  triumphantly 
the  religion  of  the  cross  upon  the  ruins  of  every  false 
religion  in  the  world. 

If,  then,  our  Divine  Master  could,  under  circumstances 
so  extremely  adverse,  still  think  it  right  to  declare  and  to 
enforce  the  command  of  the  text,  it  must  be  in  all  ages 
the  bounden  duty  of  his  ministers  to  carry  forward  the 
selfsame  message,  and  to  urge  it  upon  his  people ;  as 
much  in  Christian  England,  as  it  was  in  Antichristian 
Jerusalem,  or  in  Heathen  Rome.  No  change  of  time, 
no  alteration  of  circumstances,  effecting  any  the  least 
change  or  the  least  modification  in  the  dictates  of  Him 
who  is  "the  same  yesterday,  to-day,  and  for  ever,"  and 
"  with  whom  is  no  variableness,  neither  shadow  of 
turning." 

We  shall  proceed,  then,  to  apply  this  subject  to  our- 
selves, and  herein,  with  peculiar  reference  to  that  large 
portion  of  our  younger  hearers,  who,  since  the  last  Sab- 
bath, have  openly  confessed  the  Saviour  of  the  world. 
We  will  consider — 

First,  the  necessity  of  obeying  the  injunction  of  the 
text. 

Secondly,  The  prominency  given  to  this  duty  in  the 


CONFESSING  CHRIST. 

Word  of  God,  and  some  few  of  those  common  incidents 
in  daily  life  in  which  all  classes  of  Christians  are  called 
upon,  from  time  to  time,  by  the  providence  of  God,  to 
yield  obedience  to  it. 

First,  with  regard  to  the  constant  and  perpetual  ne- 
cessity of  our  obedience ;  if  we  look  to  the  dictates  of 
self-interest,  at  least  as  interpreted  by  worldly  wisdom, 
or  carnal  policy,  no  doubt  this  might  be  made  a  very 
prominent  feature  in  the  discourse.  We  might  point 
out  the  danger,  the  impolicy,  the  unadvisableness  of  con- 
fessing Christ,  at  all  times,  and  oh  all  occasions,  even  before 
the  ungodly  great,  before  the  sneering  infidel,  before  the  in- 
credulous man  of  science,  or  the  scoffing  man  of  wit ;  and 
we  might  show  the  advantage  of  a  judicious  selection  of 
times  and  seasons  in  which,  and  persons  before  whom, 
Christ  should  be  confessed.  But,  if  we  treat  this  portion 
of  the  subject  by  a  simple  reference  to  the  revealed  Word 
of  God,  as  we  would  desire  to  treat  every  subject  from  this 
place,  nothing  can  be  shorter,  or  more  plain,  or  more 
simple.  Our  Lord  disposes  of  the  inquiry  in  a  single 
word,  "  Whosoever."  There  is  no  distinction  as  to  time, 
or  place  or  person.  It  is  "  Whosoever  shall  confess," 
and  "  whosoever  shall  deny."  It  is  just  one  of  those 
injunctions,  upon  hearing  which  even  the  apostle  ex- 
claimed, "  This  is  a  hard  saying,  who  can  hear  it?" 
But  this  ought  not  to  take  you  by  surprise.  When,  my 
younger  brethren,  you  lately  entered  upon  the  profession 
of  Christianity,  you  were  plainly  and  distinctly  told  that 
it  was  no  flowery  mead  that  you  were  invited  to  walk 
in,  but  a  narrow  path  and  a  straight  gate,  through  which 
you  were  to  strive  and  to  press,  and,  as  the  inspired 
writer  says,  to  u  agonize,"  if  you  hope  to  enter  the  king- 
dom of  heaven.  You  were  told  that  you  were  no  longer 
to  travel  with  the  crowd,  upon  the  broad  road  which 


CONFESSING  CHRIST, 

leadeth  to  destruction;  that  the  flock  of  Christ  was  in- 
variably called  by  himself  a  "  little  flock ;"  that  you  were 
not  to  expect  to  discover  the  road  with  ease,  and  to  keep 
it  without  effort,  for  that  Christ  himself  again  had  said, 
"  Pew  there  be  that  find  it ;"  that  the  religion  you  profess 
is  never  spoken  of  in  Scripture  under  any  other  meta- 
phors than  those  of  a  race,  a  journey,  a  wrestling-match, 
or  a  battle:  that  it  is  vain,  utterly 'vain,  to  imagine  that 
you  shall  escape  from  the  difficulties  which  patriarchs^ 
prophets,  and  saints,  in  all  ages,  and  in  all  countries, 
have  encountered ;  that  he  who  turns  aside  from  the  steep 
and  rugged  and  difficult  path  which  has  ever  been  trod- 
den by  the  people  of  Christ,  to  the  heavenly  Zion,  and 
hopes  to  find  some  shorter  road  across  the  fields,  will 
not  only  lose  his  labour,  but  unless  he  return  to  what 
the  prophet  Isaiah  denominates,  the  "  king's  highway," 
will  also  lose  his  soul. 

We  proceed,  secondly,  to  offer  a  few  remarks  upon 
the  prominenc}^  given  to  this  subject,  in  the  Word  of 
God,  and  to  point  out  a  few  of  those  instances  in  daily 
life,  which  arise,  from  time  to  time,  to  elicit  our  obedi- 
ence to  it. 

Confession  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  is  made,  from  the 
very  beginning,  in  God's  W'ord,  one  of  the  first  and 
strongest  tests  of  discipleship.  When  the  Gospel  day* 
were  foretold  by  the  prophets  under  the  old  dispensation, 
we  find  the- confession  of  the  lips  bears  as  distinct  a  part 
in  the  promises  of  what  God  would  do  for  his  people,  as 
the  conversion  of  their  hearts;  thus,  while  we  hear  Jere- 
miah, speaking  of  Gospel  times,  in  that  well-known  pas- 
sage, "After  those  days,  saith  the  Lord,  I  will  put  my 
law  in  their  inward  parts,  and  write  it  in  their  hearts," 
we  hear  Isaiah  describing  the  self-same  times,  he  says, 
"  This  is  my  covenant  with  them  ;"  "  My  words,  which 


CONFESSING  CHRIST. 

I  have  put  in  thy  mouth,  shall  not  depart  out  of  thy 
mouth,  nor  out  of  the  mouth  of  thy  seed,  nor  out  of  the 
mouth  of  thy  seed's  seed,  from  henceforth  and  for  ever." 
And  that  we  may  not  suppose  that  the  mouth  and  the  heart 
are  merely  convertible  terms,  we  find  David,  in  the  very 
same  Psalm,  pray  ing,  first,  that  his  heart  might  be  inclined 
to  God's  testimonies,  and  then  that  the  Word  of  truth 
might  not  be  taken  out  of  his  mouth,  but  that  he  might 
have  courage  to  confess  publicly,  what  he  had  received 
and  rejoiced  in  privately.  In  accordance  with  the  same 
fact,  we  find  the  Apostle  to  the  Philippians,  declaring 
not  only  that,  "  at  the  name  of  Jesus,  every  knee  should 
bow,"  (this  might  be  done  privily,)  but  adding,  "  and 
every  tongue  shall  confess  that  Jesus  Christ  is  Lord." 
While,  again,  St.  John  says,  "  Whosoever  shall  confess" 
(not  merely  whosoever  shall  believe)  "  that  Jesus  is  the 
Son  of  God,  God  dwelleth  in  him,  and  he  in  God." 
And,  perhaps,  still  more  strongly  in  the  well-known 
passage  ip  Romans,  "  With  the  heart  man  believeth  unto 
righteousness,  and  with  the  mouth  confession  is  made 
unto  salvation." 

We  may  then,  without  in  any  degree  straining  the 
sense  of  Scripture,  derive  from  these  passages  this  un- 
questionable fact :  that  as  there  cannot  be  true  confession 
of  Christ  without  faith,  so  can  there  never  be  true  and 
lively  faith  in  Jesus  Christ  without  confession  of  it ;  i.  e. 
without  a  readiness,  when  time  and  opportunity  appear 
to  require  it  of  us,  to  speak  plainly,  honestly,  unambigu- 
ously, of  our  feelings  with  regard  to  Christ  and  his  reli- 
gion, before  the  people  of  the  world,  before  those  who 
differ  from  us, — yea,  if  called  to  do  so,  as  David  says,  be- 
fore even  kings,  and  not  be  ashamed.  We  are  perfectly 
aware  that  confession  of  Christ  is  at  the  present  hour  by 
no  means  the  same  painful  and  arduous  thing  that  it 
12* 


138  CONFESSING  CHRIST. 

once  was ;  that  in  some  sense  the  whole  tide  of  the  world 
may  be  said  to  have  set  in  in  favour  of  Christianity;  that 
religion,  to  a  certain  extent,  at  least  in  this  country,  in- 
deed has  become  even  fashionable !  so  that  to  confess 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  before  men  is  altogether  a  totally 
different  undertaking,  in  point  of  danger,  from  what  it 
was  in  the  days  when  such  a  confession  led  the  way  to 
the  Roman  amphitheatre,  or  the  fires  of  Smithfield ;  or 
even,  we  may  say,  to  what  it  was  some  fifteen  or  twenty 
years  ago.  Still  will  it  always  be,  when  fully,  truly, 
scripturally  performed,  a  difficult,  and  a  trying,  and  a 
painful  thing  to  flesh  and  blood.  It  is  enough  that  God 
has  commanded  it  as  a  perpetual  duty  of  the  Christian, 
to  ensure  the  fact  that  Satan  will  take  care  that  it  shall 
never  be  easy  of  performance,  shall  never  want  the  thorns 
and  briers  with  which  he  has  been  so  well  enabled  to 
entwine  every  positive  command  of  God.  Take,  for  in- 
stance, the  case  of  an  individual  in  the  lower  ranks  of 
life,  You  are,  speaking  after  the  fashion  of  men,  de- 
pendent for  your  livelihood  upon  the  will,  perhaps,  of  an 
ungodly  master  or  mistress,  and  they  require  from  you 
some  act  of  obedience  which  strikes  directly  at  your  prior 
obligation  to  your  God ;  perhaps  some  open  violation  of 
the  Lord's-day;  perhaps  some  act  of  secret  dishonesty  or 
overreaching,  which  they  may  profess  to  think  compatible 
with  their  duty  as  tradesmen  or  dealers. 

This,  then,  is  a  case  in  which,  even  at  the  present  day, 
it  is  no  easy  thing  to  confess  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ ;  to 
say  with  Joseph,  "  How  can  I  do  this  great  wickedness, 
and  sin  against  God  ?"  or  with  the  apostles,  to  refuse  the 
command  with  the  simple  declaration,  uWe  ought  to 
obey  God  rather  than  man;"  and  yet  this  is  precisely  one 
of  those  instances  to  which  our  Lord  himself  referred,  and 


CONB'ESSING  CHRIST. 


139 


for  which,  as  he  has  given  a  difficult  command,  so  will 
he  certainly  give  grace  to  obey  it. 

Or  again,  in  the  case  of  domestic  servants ;  you  are 
about  to  engage  yourself  in  a  family  where  you  will  be 
unable  to  fulfil  God's  command  of  hallowing  his  day  by 
an  attendance  at  his  house  of  prayer.  Here,  then,  you 
are  bound  to  confess  Christ  before  men,  to  reject  such  a 
situation  whatever  be  its  temporal  advantages,  because 
in  a  very  important  sense  it  would  compel  you  to  deny 
your  Saviour. 

But  perhaps  your  trial  may  proceed,  not  from  your 
masters,  but  from  your  companions,  and  is  on  that  ac- 
count even  yet  more  difficult.  You  are  requested  to 
accompany  them  upon  some  Sabbath-breaking  party,  to 
forget  the  vows  you  have  so  lately  taken  upon  you,  and 
to  join  them  in  some  act  of  immorality,  or  of  sinful 
pleasure,  or  of  gross  intemperance;  how  hard  is  it,  not 
merely  to  refuse,  but  to  refuse  upon  the  right  and  Chris- 
tian principle,  to  confess  Christ  before  men  ;  to  say  at 
once,  "  I  cannot  thus  disobey  my  Lord,  I  cannot  thus 
dishonour  him  who  died  for  me,  and  to  whom  I  have 
pledged  myself  in  a  perpetual  covenant  never  to  be  for- 
gotten." But  here  again,  ask,  and  you  shall  have,  seek, 
and  you  shall  find  ;  grace  and  wisdom  and  strength  equal 
to  your  day  are  invariably  bestowed,  under  all  such  cir- 
cumstances, to  those  who  seek  them. 

But  the  difficulty  of  confessing  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
before  men,  is  by  no  means  confined  to  the  lower  classes 
in  society,  it  affects,  and  powerfully  affects,  all,  without 
exception  and  without  reserve,  from  the  king  upon  the 
throne,  to  the  prisoner  in  the  dungeon.  There  is  not  an 
individual  who  is  not,  unless  secured  by  the  power  of 
Divine  grace,  on  these  subjects,  afraid  of  his  fellow-men, 
and,  therefore,  oftentimes  ashamed  of  Christ,  of  his  Word, 


140  CONFESSING  CHRIST. 

of  his  will,  of  his  people.  O,  it  is  pitiful  to  think  of  the 
meanness  and  the  paltriness  of  the  natural  heart  of  man, 
whatever  be  his  station,  nothing  too  low  for  it  to  sloop  to, 
nothing  too  contemptible  for  it  to  practise :  and  this  not 
alone  in  the  poor  and  the  needy  and  the  uneducated,  but 
in  the  highest  and  the  noblest  and  the  proudest. 

How  many  are  there,  for  example,  in  this  great  metro- 
polis at  this  season,  who  are  seen  crowding  into  the 
nocturnal  retreats  of  fashionable  folly,  not  because  they 
have  any  real  pleasure  in  them,  but  because  they  are 
ashamed  to  be  missed  there ;  afraid  of  losing  caste,  if 
they  are  not  seen  with  the  great  and  noble ;  afraid  of 
being  thought  more  religious  than  those  around  them; 
afraid — must  I  say  so — of  confessing  Christ.  How  many 
are  there  at  this  moment,  whose  hearts  are  convinced  of 
the  necessity,  the  propriety,  yea,  even  the  comfort,  of  a 
more  open,  decided,  uncompromising  avowal  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  a  casting-in  of  their  lot  with  the  lot  of  his 
people,  and  yet  who  dare  not  do  it;  who  dare  not  con- 
fess him,  because  they  fear  the  face  of  man,  because 
they  dread  the  opinion  of  man  more  than  of  his  Maker. 
They  are,  therefore,  bold  where  they  should  be  ashamed, 
and  ashamed  where  they  should  be  bold.  They  are  bold 
in  speaking  of  their  sins,  of  their  follies,  of  their  vices; 
but  they  are  ashamed  of  speaking,  even  before  their  own 
friends  and  acquaintances,  of  God,  of  Christ,  and  of 
heaven.  They  are  ashamed  of  the  stricter  observances 
of  a  religious  life,  even  while  they  partially  practise  them ; 
ashamed  of  a  religious  book,  yea,  even  of  the  Bible  itself, 
and  would  hide  it  from  the  eyes  of  an  ungodly  compa- 
nion, even  though  they  read  it:  and  they  would  be 
ashamed  if,  in  such  a  state  of  mind,  they  could  enter 
heaven — they  would  be  ashamed  of  heaven  itself,  until 
they  had  well  looked  around  them,  and  fully  ascertained 


CONFESSING  CHRIST. 


that  none  of  a  different  opinion  from  themselves,  whose 
scoff,  or  sneer,  or  ridicule  they  dread,  had  been  admitted 
there.  May  God  have  mercy  upon  them,  and  give  them 
grace,  before  it  be  too  late,  to  see  the  misery  of  such  a 
time-serving  waiting  upon  him,  to  know  that  a  secret 
belief  which  shuns  an  open  avowal  of  Christ,  is  removed 
but  one  step,  and  that  a  very  short  one,  from  an  absolute 
and  positive  unbelief  and  open  denial. 

Still  we  do  not  speak  of  a  conscientious  confession  of 
Christ  as  an  easy  duty,  or  one  which,  even  under  the 
mildest  circumstances,  can  be  performed  by  your  own 
unaided  resolution,  however  powerful. 

A  holy  boldness  in  the  confession  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  is  always  spoken  of  in  his  Word  as  undoubtedly 
the  gift  of  God.  "  The  Lord  God  will  help  me,  there- 
fore shall  I  not  be  confounded,  therefore  have  I  set  my 
face  like  a  flint;  and  I  know  that  I  shall  not  be  ashamed, 
I  shall  not  be  confounded,  for  God  is  at  my  right  hand." 
And,  again,  Behold,  I  have  made  thy  face  strong  against 
their  faces,  and  thy  forehead  strong  against  their  fore- 
heads." And  acting  upon  these  and  many  other  pro- 
mises, we  find  the  apostles  distinctly  asking  this  as  a 
gift  from  God,  "  Grant  unto  thy  servants,  that,  with  all 
boldness,  we  may  speak  thy  Word."  We  believe,  then, 
that  there  is  no  situation,  whether  social  and  domestic, 
or  public  and  official,  in  which,  if  we  really  seek  God's 
grace  for  this  important  and  difficult  duty,  it  will  be  with- 
held. The  cause  of  our  repeated  failures  is,  that  we 
either  attempt  the  confession  of  Christ  in  our  own  strength, 
or  we  do  not  attempt  it  with  a  single  eye  to  God's 
glory.  Wherever  either  of  these  is  the  case,  we  must 
expect  defeat  and  disgrace  and  disappointment,  and  we 
shall  most  certainly  fall.  Peter  is  an  example  of  the 
former  (the  failure  in  confessing  Christ,  when  trusting  to 


CONFESSING  CHRIST. 


our  own  strength,)  and  the  many  grievous  instances  of 
the  lapsed,  during  the  times  of  Heathen  persecution, 
form  the  abundant  examples  of  the  latter. 

But  it  is  not  merely  to  encouragement  that  we  must 
look  to  enable  us  to  fulfil  this  most  difficult  duty;  our 
Lord  himself  has  seen  fit  to  add  to  this  the  painful  alli- 
ance of  his  threatenings  :  "  Whosoever  shall  deny  me  be- 
fore men,  him  will  I  also  deny  before  my  Father  which 
is  in  heaven."  Whenever,  then,  you  are  tempted  (and 
who  is  not  at  times  so  tempted)  to  deny,  either  by  word 
or  action,  the  Lord  who  bought  you  with  his  precious 
blood  ;  to  be  ashamed  of  the  doctrines,  the  precepts,  or 
the  ordinances  of  his  religion  (and  how  many  are  kept 
from  the  Lord's  table  by  this  very  feeling,)  bring  strongly 
before  your  mind  the  short  duration  of  this  world's  opi- 
nion and  this  world's  censure.  Realize  the  great  assem- 
blage to  which  our  Lord  so  briefly  alludes  in  the  words, 
"  him  will  I  deny  before  the  angels  of  God."  O  think 
how  rapidly  all  is  passing  which  has  yet  to  be  between 
that  hour  and  the  present  ;  of  what  profit  will  all  which 
now  most  influences  your  soul  be  to  you  upon  that 
coming  day  !  To  stand  J)efore  the  Saviour's  throne  dis- 
owned, discarded,  disgraced  for  ever;  a  convicted  time- 
server,  a  detected  hypocrite  ;  to  go  up  to  that  presence, 
that  awful,  that  unspeakably  awful  presence,  full  of  the 
unholy,  the  groundless  confidence  of  those  who  shall  say, 
"Lord,  Lord,  have  we  not  prophesied  in  thy  name?" 
was  I  not  baptized  in  thy  name?  did  I  not  attend  in 
thine  house?  did  I  not  eat  at  thy  table?  did  I  not  ac- 
knowledge thee  when  in  the  presence  of  thy  people? 
And  to  hear  in  reply,  "  I  never  knew  you  ;"  you  denied 
me  with  your  lips,  you  denied  me  by  your  life,  and  the 
immutable  word  has  long  since  gone  forth,  "  He  that 


CONFESSING  CHRIST. 

denieth  me  before  men,  I  will  deny  before  the  angels 
of  God." 

While,  on  the  other  hand,  my  Christian  brethren,  (and 
especially  you,  my  younger  Christian  friends,  that  have 
lately  entered  upon  the  Christian  course  of  voluntary 
allegiance), — Who  can  worthily  estimate,  who  can  think 
or  conceive  aright  of  the  unspeakable  peace  and  comfort 
of  that  hour,  if  it  bring  with  it,  amidst  the  wreck  and 
ruin  of  a  perishing  world,  the  blessed  confession  from 
the  lips  of  Him  to  whom  all  judgment  is  committed,  that 
He  is  yours,  and  that  you  are  his?  How  blessed  to  be 
confessed  by  Christ,  when  heaven  and  «arth  shall  pass 
away ;  to  be  acknowledged  then,  as  a  sheep  of  his  own 
flock,  a  lamb  of  his  fold,  a  soul  of  his  own  redeeming: 
to  hear  him  say,  "This  man,  this  woman,  this  child, 
(and  doubtless  many  such  shall  be  there,)  bore  the  scoff 
and  the  ridicule  and  the  opprobrium  of  an  ungodly  world, 
for  my  sake ;  and  them  that  honour  me,  1  wilt  honour : 
this  young  disciple  was  not  ashamed  of  the  Gospel  of 
Christ,  he  knew  it,  loved  it,  practised  it ;  he  confessed 
me  by  his  life,  and  he  confessed  me  with  his  lips,  and 
now,  before  assembled  worlds,  I  fulfil  my  promise,  I 
confess  him  before  my  Father  which  is  in  heaven,  and 
before  the  angels  of  God;  I  have  justified  him,  I  have 
sanctified  him,  and  will  for  ever  glorify  him ;  "That 
where  I  am,  there  ye  may  be  also."  "  Well  done,  good 
and  faithful  servant:  enter  thou  into  the  joy  of  thy  Lord." 

Brethren,  let  us  all  dwell  much  upon  that  day,  think 
often  upon  that  promise,  and  by  God's  grace  we  shall 
not  be  ashamed  of  him  whose  name  we  bear,  whose 
servants  we  are,  whose  cross  we  have  professed  to  carry, 
and  "who  of  God"  will  then  be  made  "  unto  us  wisdom 
and  righteousness  and  sanctification  and  redemption." 


SERMON  XII. 


GO    FORWARD. 


EXODUS  xiv.  15. 
Speak  unto  the  children  of  Israel,  that  they  go  forward. 

IN  every  portion  of  the  history  of  the  Israelites  there  is 
so  much  to  interest,  so  much  to  edify,  so  much  to  en- 
courage the  Christian,  that  there  are  few  parts  of  Scrip- 
ture more  "  profitable  for  reproof,  for  correction,  for 
instruction  in  righteousness,"  than  those  which  refer  to 
the  perils  and  the  preservations  of  God's  chosen  people. 

It  is  my  intention  this  morning  to  bring  before  you 
one  of  the  most  remarkable  passages  in  their  astonishing 
history ;  one  in  which  the  power  of  God  and  his  faithful- 
ness to  his  people  are  so  gloriously  developed,  that  no 
Christian,  be  his  age  or  experience  what  they  may,  can 
review  it  without  the  deepest  feelings  of  gratitude,  that 
he  has  himself  been  brought  to  the  knowledge  of  such  a 
God,  and  reconciled  by  the  blood  of  Christ  to  such  a 
Father. 

The  incident  in  the  history  of  the  Israelites  which  led 
to  the  command  of  the  text  is  as  follows.  Their  long 
and  grievous  captivity  under  Pharaoh,  king  of  Egypt, 
had  just  been  brought  to  a  conclusion  by  the  miraculous 

144 


GO  FORWARD. 

interference  of  the  Almighty.  But  their  difficulties, 
which  they  no  doubt  had  imagined  would  have  been  at 
an  end,  appeared  to  be  rather  increased  than  diminished 
by  the  change.  While  they  were  in  bondage  they  were 
not  indeed  happy,  for  they  were  the  slaves  of  tyrannical 
masters,  and  they  received  from  those  they  served  neither 
remuneration  nor  pity.  But  what  was  the  change  of 
state  which  they  had  now  experienced  ?  They  had  been 
marched  out  into  "the  wild  and  waste-howling  wilder- 
ness," where  there  was  not  shade  to  shelter  them  from 
the  burning  heat  of  the  sun,  no  plentiful  supply  of  water 
to  slake  their  thirst,  no  rest  for  the  sole  of  their  weary  feet. 

These  were  difficulties  sufficient,  and  more  than  suffi- 
cient to  have  appalled  the  stoutest  heart ;  but  even  these 
were  by  no  means  the  most  severe  with  which  the 
Israelites  had  to  contend.  The  inexorable  Pharaoh, 
from  whom  his  sufferings  had  at  last  wrung  only  a  con- 
strained permission  to  depart,  no  sooner  found  that  they 
were  really  gone,  than  his  heart  was  again  hardened,  and 
he  resolved  once  more  to  bring  them  back  to  the  scene 
of  their  captivity.  He  therefore  collects  all  his  chariots 
of  war,  his  horsemen,  and  his  armies,  and  follows  the 
unarmed  and  unprotected  multitudes  of  Israel  into  the 
very  depths  of  the  wilderness. 

Behold  then,  brethren,  the  awful  and  critical  situation 
of  the  people  of  God !  Behind  them  was  this  enraged 
monarch,  who  had  now  overtaken  them,  and  drawn 
around  them  the  armies  of  his  mighty  ones,  and  en- 
camped so  closely  upon  them,  that  nothing  but  his  com- 
mand appears  to  be  wanting  to  put  them  to  instant  and 
remediless  slaughter.  Before  them  were  the  waters  of 
the  Red  Sea,  which  no  human  being  had  ever  forded. 
Can  we  conceive  a  more  terrifying  or  a  more  hopeless 

13 


146 


GO  FORWARD. 


situation  V  Who  can  be  surprised  at  reading,  "  When 
Pharaoh  drew  nigh,  the  children  of  Israel  lifted  up  their 
eyes,  and  behold,  the  Egyptians  marched  after  them, 
and  they  were  sore  afraid  ."  Then  was  demonstrated 
their  want  of  faith,  of  confidence,  of  reliance  in  the 
power  of  their  Almighty  Leader :  "  Because  there  were 
no  graves  in  Egypt,"  said  the  Israelites,  "hast  thou 
taken  us  away  to  die  in  the  wilderness?  It  had  been 
better  for  us  to  serve  the  Egyptians,  than  that  we  should 
die  in  the  wilderness," 

This;  then,  was  the  remarkable  moment  that  the  words 
of  the  text  were  spoken.,  In  answer  to  the  desponding 
and  faithless  declaration  which  1  have  just  read  to  you, 
Moses  himself,  alarmed  and  uncertain,  had  replied, 
"  Stand  still ;  the  Lord  shall  fight  for  you,  and  ye  shall 
hold  your  peace."  But  here  even  Moses  appears  to  have 
decided  wrong.  Great  as  is  the  duty  oftentimes  of  stand- 
ing still  and  waiting  for  the  Lord,  (and  a  veiy  important 
and  trying  duty  it  is,  and  many  are  the  promises  attached 
to  its  fulfilment,)  there  is  also  the  still  more  necessary 
duty  of  striving  in  the  strength  of  the  Lord,  and  acting 
fearlessly  and  unhesitatingly  under  his  guidance,  and  at 
his  command.  This  was  the  exercise  of  faith  to  which 
God  saw  fit,  on  the  present  occasion,  to  command  the 
Israelites;  and  his  answer  to  the  ejaculations,  or  it  may 
be,  the  mental  prayer  of  Moses,  — foi  no  prayer  is  re- 
corded,— was  the  commandment  of  the  text:  "Where- 
fore criest  thou  unto  me?"  saith  the  Lord,  "speak  unto 
the  children  of  Israel,  that  they  go  forward." 

Never  was  there  a  period  since  time  began,  when  such 
a  command,  if  uttered  by  man,  would  have  been  so 
futile ;  when  such  a  command,  even  though  proceeding 
from  the  mouth  of  the  Almighty  God  himself,  must  have 


GO  FORWARD. 


147 


appeared  so  absolutely  impracticable;  and  yet  there 
never  was  a  time  when  God  permitted  it  to  be  more 
triumphantly  obeyed. 

The  Israelites  went  forward,  and  the  waters  of  the  sea 
were  immediately  divided  by  the  word  of  God ;  those 
remote  recesses  of  the  ocean  into  which  the  light  of  day 
had  never  penetrated,  were  all  made  visible  to  their 
astonished  sight ;  the  very  element  through  which  they 
passed  appeared  to  change  its  nature ;  to  open  up  from 
its  extremest  depths,  and  to  stand  as  "a  wall,"  says  the 
Word  of  God,  on  their  right  hand  and  on  their  left, 
while  the  people  of  God  passed  through  the  depths  of 
the  sea  without  even  wetting  the  soles  of  their  feet. 

The  Egyptians  also  went  forward,  and  the  path  looked 
safe  and  dry  before  them,  and  the  waters  stood  as  a  wall 
on  their  right  hand  and  on  their  left.  Both  the  friends  and 
the  enemies  of  God,  therefore,  were  together  in  this  awful 
and  astonishing  passage.  Both  had  with  equal  fearless- 
ness advanced  together,  but  there  was  still  an  important 
difference:  the  Israelites  had  gone  forward  at  the  com- 
mand, and  therefore  in  the  strength  of  the  Almighty ; 
while  the  Egyptians  had  advanced  in  the  plenitude  of 
their  own  pride,  and  in  the  might  of  their  own  strength. 
Do  you  not,  then,  already  anticipate  the  difference  of 
their  fates? 

All  that  fearful  night  the  two  hostile  armies  were  to- 
gether traversing  that  road  of  miracle ;  but  we  read  that 
the  angel  of  God,  who  usually  went  before  the  Israelites, 
removed  and  went  behind  them ;  and  the  pillar  of  the 
cloud  also  moved  and  went  behind  them,  standing  be- 
tween them  and  the  Egyptians,  shedding  light  and  com- 
fort and  assurance  of  protection  upon  the  people  of  God, 
but  hanging  in  portentous  darkness  upon  their  enemies; 
s-j  that,  as  the  Word  of  God  declares,  "The  one  army 


GO  FORWARD. 

came  not  near  the  other  all  night."  "  And  it  came  to 
pass,  in  the  morning  watch,  that  the  Lord  looked,"  such 
is  the  emphatic  language  of  holy  writ,  "  unto  the  host  of 
the  Egyptians  through  the  pillar  of  fire  and  cloud,  and 
troubled  the  host  of  the  Egyptians,"  and  made  them  to 
go  heavily.  Then  Moses,  at  the  command  of  the  Most 
High,  "  stretched  forth  his  hand  over  the  sea,  and  tl^e  sea 
returned  to  his  strength,  when  the  morning  appeared ; 
and  the  Egyptians  fled  against  it ;  and  the  Lord  over- 
threw them  in  the  midst  of  the  sea.  And  the  waters  re- 
turned, and  covered  the  chariots,  and  the  horsemen,  and 
all  the  host  of  Pharaoh  ;.....  there  remained  not  so 
much  as  one  of  them." 

Interesting  as  is  the  narrative,  brethren,  I  will  not  en- 
large upon  it,  but  will  rather  leave  you  to  read  it  and  re- 
flect upon  it  for  yourselves;  for  the  time  usually  allotted 
to  spiritual  instruction  is  so  brief,  that  I  am  anxious  to 
hasten  to  the  personal  application  of  the  subject  be- 
fore us. 

Let  us,  then,  proceed,  first,  to  trace  the  likeness  exist- 
ing between  the  Israelites,  recently  delivered  from  the 
land  of  their  captivity,  and  those  among  you  who  are  but 
newly  awakened  to  your  own  position  as  sinners,  and 
desirous  of  being  indeed  delivered  from  worse  than 
Egyptian  bondage,  and  forwarded  on  the  road  to  the 
everlasting  mansions. 

One  of  the  earliest  feelings  by  which  you  are  likely  to 
be  influenced  is  of  this  nature.  We  will  suppose,  and 
we  trust,  with  regard  to  some  among  you,  rightly  sup- 
pose, that  you  are  tired  of  the  servitude  of  sin,  or  of  the 
world,  wearied  with  the  bondage  of  Satan,  in  which  we 
all,  by  nature,  are  enthralled,  and  in  which  many,  alas! 
how  many,  continue  at  the  present  moment  entangled ; 
but  you  have  seen,  by  God's  grace,  your  misery  and  your 


GO  FORWARD. 


149 


danger,  and  you  imagine,  and  properly  imagine,  that  a 
great  and  effectual  step  has  been  taken  in  bringing  you  to 
this  state  of  feeling,  for  it  is  the  work  of  God's  Spirit,  even 
of  Him  alone ;  but  you  are  led,  naturally,  though  erro- 
neously, to  expect  that  your  present  comfort  and  happi- 
ness and  security  will  be  as  certain  as  your  more  distant 
and  undoubted  prospect:  i.  e.  (taking  the  Israelites  as 
the  type  of  the  Christian),  you  expect  to  enjoy  the  hap- 
piness of  Canaan,  while  traversing  the  wilderness  which 
lies  before  it.  You  are  enabled,  with  the  apostle,  in  some 
degree  to  rejoice  in  the  hope  of  the  glory  of  God,  and  of 
the  rest  which  remaineth  for  his  people,  but  you  expect 
and  want  even  more  than  this,  you  love  not  the  wearisome 
travel,  the  hard-fought  conflicts,  "  the  great  fight  of  afflic- 
tions," which  will  render  that  rest  so  doubly  dear  to  all 
who  are  permitted  to  obtain  it.  You  would  like,  even 
while  on  earth,  at  once  to  place  your  foot  upon  the 
threshold  of  heaven,  before  it  has  been  soiled  and  pierced 
and  bruised  by  the  ruggedness  of  the  way  which  leads  to 
it.  This  would  doubtless  be  the  course  of  nature,  but  it 
is  not  the  course  of  grace.  Just  as  it  was  to  have  been 
expected  that  Pharaoh,  who  had  so  long  and  so  uninter- 
ruptedly enjoyed  the  services  of  the  Israelites,  should 
make  many  an  effort  to  regain  them  for  his  servants,  so 
the  Word  of  God,  and  the  daily  experience  of  Christians, 
teach  us  to  expect  that  the  powers  of  darkness  will  league 
together,  in  close  and  active  alliance,  to  endeavour  to  re- 
gain their  victim,  and  to  snatch  the  prey  from  the  hand 
of  the  great  Deliverer.  It  is  not  only  most  natural  that 
Satan  should  do  so,  but  it  is  most  certain  that  he  does  do 
so.  And  if  there  be  a  time  in  your  Christian  life  which 
calls  most  loudly  for  your  own  efforts  and  caution  and 
.circumspection,  and  the  prayers  and  counsel  and  encour- 
agement of  your  Christian  friends,  and  the  especial  aid 
13* 


150 


GO  FORWARD. 


and  assistance  of  God's  good  Spirit,  it  is  the  period  which 
succeeds  that  when  you  experience  the  first  effectual 
struggling  of  the  Spirit  of  grace  against  the  spirit  of  dark- 
ness in  your  heart;  the  time  when  the  stubborn  will  is 
bending,  and  the  hard  heart  softening,  and  the  affections 
(hitherto  captivated  by  the  world)  are  loosening  its  bonds, 
and  the  whole  man  is  beginning  to  return  to  the  God  and 
Father  of  all  his  mercies;  for  then  it  is  that  the  first  ten- 
der upspringing  of  the  spiritual  plant  is  in  the  greatest 
danger,  that  the  faint  flame,  as  yet  scarcely  kindled,  ap- 
pears liable  to  be  most  easily  blown  out.  Then  it  is  that 
the  devil  rages  most  violently,  and  goes  to  the  full  length 
of  his  chain,  and  leaves  no  effort  untried,  no  nerve  un- 
strained, if  he  may  but  reach  and  devour  the  escaping 
captive.  Then  it  is,  that  he  revives  within  your  breast 
passions  and  desires  which  you  had  hoped  were  utterly 
extinguished ;  that  you  are  at  times  almost  tempted  to 
exclaim  in  the  sadness  of  a  desponding  spirit,  to  the  God 
and  Saviour  of  your  soul.  "  Let  us  alone,  that  we  may 
serve  the  Egyptians,  for  it  had  been  better  for  us  to  serve 
the  Egyptians,  than  that  we  should  die  in  the  wilderness." 
But,  brethren,  you  who  experimentally  know  these  things, 
take  courage,  you  shall  neither  u  serve  the  Egyptians," 
nor  4<  die  in  the  wilderness."  The  powers  of  darkness 
are  indeed  in  league  against  you,  as  they  have  been 
against  every  child  of  God  since  time  began,  as  they 
were  against  your  Divine  and  perfect  Master ;  they  may 
endeavour  to  magnify  to  your  apprehension  the  perils 
which  are  before  you,  the  seas  of  danger  and  of  opposi- 
tion through  which  you  may  be  called  to  pass;  they 
may  strive  to  convince  you  that  what  is  painful,  is  in- 
sufferable, that  what  is  difficult  is  insurmountable ;  they 
may  have  the  power  of  knowing  much  of  the  real  diffi- 
culties with  which  the  path  of  every  believer  is  encom- 


GO  FORWARD. 


151 


passed,  but  be  assured,  they  do  not  know,  they  never  can 
know,  for  nothing  but  happy  and  blessed  experience  can 
teach  the  strength  of  the  arm  which  will  guide,  the  light 
of  the  countenance  which  will  cheer,  the  love  of  the 
Spirit  of  Christ  which  will  protect  you.  The  uncreated 
Angel  of  the  covenant  has  pitched  his  tent  and  unfurled 
his  standard  between  you  and  your  spiritual  enemies  ;  it 
is  light  and  peace  to  you,  but  darkness  and  dismay  to 
them.  In  the  desert  through  which  you  are  to  pass, 
you  shall  find  the  highway  of  the  Lord ;  in  the  deepest 
waters  of  trial  and  affliction  and  temptation  which  await 
you,  there  is  a  dry  path  and  a  safe  path  prepared  for  you, 
upon  which  they  cannot  follow  you  far,  in  which  your 
footsteps  shall  neither  stumble,  nor  slide. 

If  then  you  have,  any  among  you,  begun  to  feel  that 
the  course  is  more  arduous,  and  the  prospect  less  en- 
couraging, than  you  once  thought  them,  how  earnestly 
would  I  desire  to  impress  upon  you  the  instructive  lesson 
which  has  this  day  been  set  before  you.  You  perceive 
what  God  has  done  for  those  who  obeyed  and  trusted 
him  ;  you  hear  from  the  words  of  his  never-broken 
promises  what  he  will  do  for  every  penitent  who  comes 
to  him  through  the  blood  of  his  dear  Son ;  and  do  you 
now  ask,  what  shall  you  do?  our  reply  shall  be  made  to 
you  in  the  words  of  the  text,  "Go  forward."  In  the 
case  of  the  Israelites,  it  would  have  been  death  to  have 
retreated,  or  to  have  remained  stationary.  In  your  case, 
to  remain  stationary  is  impossible ;  you  must  advance  or 
recede.  To  retreat,  would  be  as  certain  destruction  to 
you,  as  to  the  bands  of  Israel;  there  is,  therefore,  no 
alternative  of  safety  but  in  advancing. 

We  would  say  then  to  each  and  to  all  among  you,  for 
none  have  advanced  so  far  as  to  be  beyond  the  reach  of 
this  counsel,  rest  not  in  present  attainments,  let  those 


152  G0  FORWARD. 

attainments  be  what  they  may;  there  is  still  much  to  be 
learnt,  which  you  have  not  learnt;  much  to  be  practised, 
which  you  have  not  practised ;  much  in  your  spiritual 
life  to  be  experienced,  which  you  have  not  experienced; 
therefore,  let  your  great  aim  and  object  be  to  advance. 
We  say,  "  Go  forward,"  faithfully  and  prayerfully,  cir- 
cumspectly and  boldly.  Remember,  for  your  encourage- 
ment, under  what  peculiar  circumstances  of  danger  and 
of  difficulty  this  command  in  the  text  was  first  given.  A 
deep  and  mighty  ocean  crossed  their  path,  and  yet  the 
Israelites  were  ordered  to  advance.  The  moment  they 
boldly  and  faithfully  obeyed,  every  danger  vanished, 
every  difficulty  was  overcome.  The  waters  fell  back 
before  them,  not  a  hair  of  their  head  was  touched,  not  a 
sole  of  their  foot  was  wetted  ;  while,  had  they  attempted 
to  return,  they  must  have  perished  with  the  Egyptians. 
Such,  also,  will  be  your  safety  if  you  advance ;  your 
ruin  if  you  recede.  Let  your  prayer  be,  "Lord,  in- 
crease my  faith."  According  unto  "  thy  faith,"  said 
our  Lord  in  the  days  of  his  flesh,  and  thus  says  he  now, 
"  According  to  thy  faith  be  it  done  unto  thee."  So  will 
you  be  enabled  to  fulfil  this  most  important,  most  diffi- 
cult command.  The  most  timid  child  is  not  afraid  to 
walk  in  the  dark,  from  the  moment  that  he  touches  his 
father's  hand,  or  hears  his  father's  voice.  Why  is  this  ? 
Because  he  has  a  perfect  trust  in  his  father's  power  and 
love ;  therefore  the  danger  is  no  danger  to  him.  Only 
trust  God,  with  half  the  confidence  which  you  expect 
from  your  own  children,  and  your  life  will  be  the  Chris- 
tian's life  of  faith,  and  your  walk  the  Christian's  walk 
of  decision  and  boldness. 

I  have  said  before,  that  this  injunction  is  needful  to  us 
ull.  Who  then  is  that  faithful  and  wise  servant,  who  is 
never  found  sleeping  at  his  post,  when  he  ought  (like 


GO  FORWARD. 


153 


the  wise  virgins)  to  be  watching;  or  standing  still,  when 
he  ought  (like  the  advancing  Israelites)  to  be  "  going 
forward?"  But,  if  needful  to  us  all,  is  it  not  pre- 
eminently needful  to  those  among  you,  who  have  been 
privileged  for  years  to  hear  and  to  believe  the  word  of 
truth,  and  yet  whose  spiritual  advancement  bears  no  pro- 
portion to  your  spiritual  knowledge  ?  Who,  when  you 
look  backward  for  a  year,  or  it  may  be,  for  many  years, 
appear  to  be  standing  identically  in  the  same  spot,  in  the 
spiritual  life,  which  you  then  occupied.  No  warmer 
interest  in  these  things  now  than  then ;  no  greater  fre- 
quency in  your  applications  to  the  book  of  God,  or  to 
the  blood  of  Christ ;  no  greater  fervency  in  your  prayers; 
no  stronger  and  more  successful  restraint  over  your  pas- 
sions, your  worldliness,  your  temper,  or  your  tongue  ;  no 
more  self-denying  or  persevering  efforts  to  bring  every 
thought  into  captivity  to  the  obedience  of  Christ,  or  to 
labour,  and  delight  to  labour,  in  good  works  for  his 
honour  and  glory.  Surely,  brethren,  if  you  are  conscious 
that  these,  or  any  of  these  allegations,  apply  to  you,  you 
will  not  deny  that  the  injunction  of  the  text  also  applies 
to  you,  with  peculiar  force.  You  will  feel  ashamed, 
that,  after  all  God  has  done  for  you,  temporally  and 
spiritually,  you  have  made  such  slow,  such  inadequate 
progress  in  the  Christian  life,  such  little  advancement  in 
the  way  to  heaven.  But  you  will  not,  as  too  many  do, 
rest  satisfied  with  the  mere  acknowledgment  of  your 
short-comings ;  you  will  not  content  yourself  even  with 
your  feeling  of  them,  and  regret  for  them,  however  heart- 
felt or  sincere.  If  you  are  in  earnest,  if  you  are  truly 
sensible  of  this  deficiency,  you  will  set  yourself  to  con- 
sider seriously,  earnestly,  prayerfully,  the  cause  of  your 
non-advancement.  Is  it  your  natural  indolence,  the  dis- 
inclination to  the  things  of  God,  we  all  have,  flowing 


154 


QO  FORWARD. 


from  a  corrupt  nature  and  a  perverted  heart?  Is  it  the 
too  powerful  attractions  of  a  world  in  which  you  are 
daily  immersed,  and  whose  fascinations  you  cannot 
resist?  Is  it  the  difficulty  of  your  peculiar  situation 
which  hedges  you  around  with  impediments  always  op- 
posing, and  weights  continually  pressing  upon  you? 
Well,  be  it  what  it  may,  your  remedy  is  the  same,  for 
you  will  remember  that,  when  we  spoke  of  the  Israelites 
and  the  Egyptians  passing  through  the  Red  Sea,  the 
only  difference  between  them  was,  that  the  former  walked 
with  God,  and  the  latter  without  him.  Therefore  the 
former  made  the  passage  and  went  forward,  while  the 
latter  perished  in  the  attempt.  So  with  yourselves.  You 
must  look  for  strength  unto  Jesus,  the  author  and  finisher 
of  your  faith,  whose  grace  is  sufficient  for  you,  and  you 
will  persevere.  You  must  seek  a  counterpoise  for  all 
these  things  in  the  promised  influences  of  his  Holy  Spirit, 
to  be  your  pillar  of  cloud  by  day,  and  of  fire  by  night. 
Neither  must  you  seek  this  coldly  and  languidly.  You 
must  say,  "  My  life,  my  soul,  my  eternity,  depend  upon 
my  going  forward  ;  for  what  I  have  long  called  standing 
still,  has,  I  find,  been  in  reality  going  backward.  My 
prayers,  my  zeal,  my  love,  my  obedience,  are  not  only 
not  improved,  but  they  are  not  what  they  were ;  I  cared 
more  and  felt  more  for  all  these  things  once  than  I  now 
do ;  and  it  is  evident  that,  unless  checked  by  the  strong 
hand  of  my  God,  and  again  drawn  forward  and  brought 
into  closer  union  with  my  Redeemer,  I  shall  continue  to 
recede,  I  shall  ultimately  sink,  I  shall  perish  everlast- 
ingly." Once  be  led,  by  God's  grace,  to  feel,  acknow- 
ledge, and  act  thus,  and  we  have  no  fear  for  the  result. 
The  promise,  and  the  Saviour  who  made  that  promise, 
are  both  your  own.  "  They  shall  never  perish,  neither 
shall  any  man  pluck  them  out  of  my  hand." 


GO  FORWARD. 

But  I  must  add,  in  conclusion,  a  few  words  to  you, 
who,  by  God's  grace,  do  not  require  to  be  thus  urged  for- 
ward by  the  recollection  that  you  are  falling  back. 

We  trust  that  many  of  you  are  endeavouring  to  fulfil 
the  command  upon  which  we  have  this  day  spoken. 
Striving  to  advance,  not  as  though  you  had  already 
attained,  either  were  already  perfect,  but  forgetting  those 
things  which  are  behind,  and  reaching  forth  unto  those 
things  which  are  before,  you  daily  press,  or  strive  to 
press,  towards  the  mark  of  your  high  calling. 

You,  also,  have  a  duty  to  perform,  and  we  say  to  you, 
"  Go  forward,"  gratefully,  cheerfully,  joyfully.  Prove 
to  those  around  you,  that  religion  is  not  the  dull  and 
stagnant  and  cheerless  service  which  the  worldling  thinks 
it.  Demonstrate  that,  while  all  your  motives  and  all 
your  aims  and  all  your  hopes  are  higher,  infinitely  higher, 
than  his  can  ever  be,  your  comforts,  also,  and  your  peace, 
your  cheerfulness  and  your  resignation  and  your  happi- 
ness, are  all  of  them  equally  above  and  superior  to  any 
which  he  can  dream  of.  That  as  you  advance  in  years, 
that  period  when  the  hope  of  the  hypocrite  fails,  when 
the  temper  of  the  mere  worldling  becomes  too  often 
irritable  and  querulous,  your  enjoyments  are  but  heighten- 
ing, your  prospects  becoming  less  clouded  and  more 
serene ;  that  the  glorious  anticipation  before  you  is  throw- 
ing many  a  beam  of  light  into  nature's  darkest  hour  and 
over  her  most  wintry  day ;  and  that  you  are  able,  humbly, 
yet  confidently,  seriously,  yet  cheerfully,  to  go  forward 
from  strength  to  strength,  assured  that  there  is  one,  who, 
when  your  heart  and  your  flesh  fail,  will  be  (because 
he  has  promised  to  be)  "  the  strength  of  your  heart  and 
your  portion  for  ever." 

This  ought  to  be,  my  beloved  Christian  brethren,  this 
will  be,  if  you  seek  it  from  him  to  whose  Holy  Spirit  we 


|56  G0  FORWARD. 

are  taught  to  trace  every  good  and  perfect  gift,  ("  love, 
joy,  and  peace"  among  the  number),  this  will  be  the 
frame  of  mind  in  which  you  will  be  enabled  to  live,  and 
to  glorify  God,  and  to  recommend,  by  your  example,  the 
religion  which  you  love. 

Thus  advancing  in  the  strength  and  in  the  footsteps 
of  your  Divine  Leader,  you  shall  be  enabled  to  "  go  for- 
ward" boldly,  consistently,  joyfully,  and,  at  the  last, 
triumphantly,  through  Him  who  loved  you,  and  gave 
himself  for  you. 


SERMON  XIII. 

SANCTIFIED    AFFLICTIONS. 

2  COR.  iv.  17,  18. 

For  our  light  affliction,  which  is  but  for  a  moment,  worketh  for  us 
a  far  more  exceeding  and  eternal  weight  of  glory ;  while  we  look 
not  at  the  things  which  are  seen,  but  at  the  things  which  are  not 
seen :  for  the  things  which  are  seen  are  temporal ;  but  the  things 
which  are  not  seen  are  eternal. 

THERE  are  few  things  of  which  men  form  so  false 
an  estimate  as  of  the  calamities  and  trials  of  this 
mortal  life.  The  merely  thoughtless  man,  when  sud- 
denly overtaken  in  his  career  of  sin  by  any  of  the  multi- 
plied afflictions  which  beset  our  path,  plunges  deeper 
into  the  ocean  of  folly  in  which  he  lives ;  and  while  he 
carries  the  barbed  arrow  in  his  side  from  scene  to  scene, 
and  from  place  to  place,  and  from  pleasure  to  pleasure, 
considers  his  affliction  only  as  one  of  the  unlucky  acci- 
dents of  the  world  in  which  he  lives,  and  consoles  him- 
self with  the  aphorism  of  the  poet,  "  The  longest  day, 
live  till  to-morrow,  shall  have  passed  away."  The  more 
reflecting  man  of  the  world  views  these  same  afflictions 
only  as  miseries  which  he  is  compelled  to  endure  be- 
cause there  is  no  escape ;  but  he  repines  while  he  suffers, 
and  while  he  writhes  beneath  the  hand  of  a  chastening 

14  157 


158  SANCTIFIED  AFFLICTIONS. 

God,  refuses  to  humble  himself  and  to  "hear  the  rod  or 
him  who  appointeth  it."  How  strikingly  different  is  the 
case  with  the  Christian  when  he  is  subjected  to  the 
afflicting  visitations  of  his  God.  Although  he  feels  as 
deeply,  as  acutely  as  the  men  of  the  world,  he  has  within 
him  a  settled  and  never-failing  principle  that  moderates 
his  sorrow,  sanctifies  his  affliction,  and  bestows  a  peace 
and  comfort  and  strong  consolation,  which  none  but  a 
real  child  of  God  can  ever  know.  He  neither  looks  at 
his  calamity  as  an  unlucky  accident,  nor  as  a  grievous 
and  unavoidable  misery ;  he  knows  that  nothing,  either 
of  good  or  evil,  comes  to  him,  which  is  unintended  for 
him,  or  unappointed  for  him  by  Him  whose  highest  attri- 
bute is  love.  He  sees  the  trial  as  written  against  his 
name  in  the  Lamb's  book  of  life,  as  a  clause  in  the  ever- 
lasting covenant,  as  one  link  in  that  eternal  chain  of 
providences  and  mercies  which  is  wound  around  himself 
and  all  who  are  dear  to  him  on  earth,  and  which  is 
fastened  to  the  throne  of  God's  immutability  and  love  in 
heaven.  If  you  are  a  child  of  God,  therefore,  you  will 
remember  that  God  has  engaged  to  keep  you  from  the 
evils,  the  snares,  the  temptation,  of  the  world.  In  the 
covenant  of  grace  God  has  engaged  himself  to  purge 
away  your  sins,  to  brighten  your  graces,  to  crucify  your 
hearts  to  the  world,  and  to  prepare  you  and  to  preserve 
you  for  his  heavenly  kingdom.  Afflictions  form  one  of 
the  methods  by  which  he  usually  effects  this ;  and  it  is 
agreeable  to  his  covenant,  even  to  that  portion  of  it 
which  he  has  seen  fit  to  reveal  to  us,  that  they  should  do 
so,  for  has  he  not  said,  "  If  my  children  forsake  my  law, 
and  walk  not  in  my  judgments;  if  they  break  my 
statutes,  and  keep  not  my  commandments;  then  will  I 
visit  their  transgressions  with  the  rod,  and  their  iniquity 
with  stripes ;  nevertheless,  my  loving-kindness  will  I  not 


SANCTIFIED  AFFLICTIONS.  J  51) 

utterly  take  from  him,  nor  suffer  my  faithfulness  to  fail." 
Afflictions,  therefore,  are  the  very  fruits  of  God's  faithful- 
ness, to  which  the  covenant  binds  him.  God  would  be 
unfaithful  if,  first  or  last,  more  or  less,  he  did  not  afflict 
his  people.  It  is  this  persuasion,  therefore,  that  enables 
every  real  child  of  God  to  exclaim,  even  from  a  sorrowing 
or  a  broken  heart,  "  I  know  that  this  affliction  comes  to 
me  directly  from  the  hand  of  a  Father  who  loves  me, 
who  does  not  willingly  grieve  even  the  most  wayward  of 
his  children,  who  would  not  willingly  afflict  me.  He 
knows  that  I  need  it,  he  knows  that  if  his  chastening 
hand  were  not  often  upon  me,  I  should  be  continually 
c starting  aside  like  a  broken  bow;'  I  bow  before  his 
justice,  I  acknowledge  his  mercy,  I  bless  him  for  this 
tribulation,  and  my  daily  prayer  is,  that  it  may  work 
that  holy  and  sanctifying  effect  upon  my  heart,  without 
which  I  fear  I  shall  never  be  rendered  '  meet  to  be  a 
partaker  of  the  inheritance  of  the  saints  in  light.' ':'  How 
completely,  my  brethren,  do  these  blessed  feelings,  com- 
mon to  all  the  children  in  our  Father's  redeemed  family, 
draw  the  sting  from  every  trial,  and  sweeten  the  bitterest 
visitation ;  how  entirely  do  they  enable  us  to  enter  into 
the  mind  of  him  who  wrote  the  words  of  the  text,  and 
who  spake  of  some  of  the  heaviest  trials  which  ever 
weighed  down  mortality,  as  "  our  light  affliction,  which 
is  but  for  a  moment." 

But  these  considerations  do  not  stand  alone  in  the 
heart  of  the  Christian ;  there  are  others  equally  availing, 
and  all  flowing  from  the  same  source,  tending  to  make 
the  afflictions  of  earth  both  light  and  momentary.  The 
most  influential  of  these  is  the  certainty  which  the  Chris- 
tian enjoys,  that  in  all  his  losses  he  still  possesses  some- 
thing which  he  cannot  lose ;  that  in  being  enabled  to  say 
with  the  Church  of  old,  "  My  beloved  is  mine,  and  I  am 


160  SANCTIFIED  AFFLICTIONS. 

his;"  or  with  the  apostle,  "Nothing  shall  separate  me 
from  the  love  of  God  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord  ;" 
he  has  that  of  which  neither  affliction,  nor  death,  nor 
time,  nor  eternity  can  deprive  him,  and  in  comparison  of 
which  all  that  he  has  lost,  or  can  lose,  are  utterly  insigni- 
ficant. The  strength  of  this  principle,  in  producing  the 
effect  of  which  I  speak,  has  often  in  all  ages  of  the 
Church  been  demonstrated.  During  the  persecutions  of 
the  martyrs  it  seems  to  have  been  more  powerfully  and 
sweetly  operative  than  any  other.  Among  many  similar 
instances  recorded  by  Fox,  there  is  one  of  a  pious  woman 
who,  when  taken  before  the  cruel  Bishop  Bonner,  and 
threatened  that  her  husband  should  be  put  to  death,  un- 
dauntedly replied,  "  Christ  is  my  husband."  When  told 
that  her  children  should  be  taken  away,  answered  again, 
"  Christ  is  better  to  me  than  ten  sons."  When  threat- 
ened that  she  should  be  robbed  of  every  outward  comfort, 
and  stripped  even  of  her  raiment,  still  had  faith  to  reply, 
"  Yea,  but  Christ  is  mine,  and  you  cannot  strip  me  of 
him."  The  assurance  that  she  had  a  saving  interest  in 
her  Redeemer,  that  the  Beloved  was  hers,  and  she  was 
his,  made  every  sorrow  light,  and  every  trial  momentary. 

The  apostle  does  not,  however,  content  himself  in  the 
text  with  asserting  the  lightness  and  the  transitoriness  of 
the  Christian's  sorrow,  he  goes  further  than  this,  he  de- 
clares that  in  its  effects  it  is  a  positive  blessing ;  he  says, 
"  Our  light  affliction,  which  is  but  for  a  moment,  worketh 
for  us  a  far  more  exceeding  and  eternal  weight  of  glory." 
Blessed  words  !  may  the  Lord  fulfil  them  to  every  soul 
among  us  in  our  hour  of  need.  But  let  us  be  careful 
that  while  we  thus  seek  their  fulfilment  we  first  duly  ap- 
preciate their  intention. 

It  involves  a  point  upon  which  the  natural  heart  is  too 
often  widely  mistaken,  viz.3 — that  great  sufferings  can- 


SANCTII IED  AFFLICTIONS.  IQl 

not  but  deserve  and  obtain  for  us  great  rewards.  Be 
assured,  my  brethren,  that  nothing  could  be  farther  from 
the  intention  of  the  apostle  in  the  text  than  to  counte- 
nance such  an  error.  When  he  says  that  our  affliction 
"  worketh  for  us,"  nothing  could  be  farther  from  his 
thoughts  than  that  the  affliction  should,  in  a  meritorious 
manner,  purchase  or  procure  for  us  "  the  eternal  weight 
of  glory ;"  this  would  at  once  contradict  a  large  portion 
of  the  declarations  of  Holy  Writ,  which  invariably  pro- 
nounce eternal  life  to  be  the  unmerited  "  gift  of  God." 
Our  title  to  that  blessed  inheritance,  thanks  be  to  God,  is 
a  very  different  and  a  far  more  certain  one ;  it  is  a  title 
written  in  the  blood  of  the  everlasting  covenant,  and 
made  over  to  us  when  we  are  adopted  into  the  family  of 
God  ;  for  the  Word  of  God  declares,  «  If  children," 
whether  suffering  children  or  rejoicing  children  matters 
not,  but  if  children,  "then  heirs,  heirs  of  God,  and  joint 
heirs  with  Christ."  Assuredly,  therefore,  never  could 
the  heaviest  sufferings  merit  the  slightest  reward,  much 
less  could  the  trials  of  a  passing  moment  merit  the  joys 
of  a  never-ending  eternity. 

In  what  sense,  then,  can  the  words  of  the  apostle  be 
fairly  taken  ?  doubtless  in  this,  that  these  afflictions  work 
for  us  a  far  more  exceeding  wreight  of  glory,  by  working 
in  us  a  far  more  fit  and  holy  frame  of  mind,  and  therefore 
a  far  greater  capacity  for  the  enjoyment  of  it. 

Do  I,  then,  speak  to  any  of  you  this  day,  who  have 
been  visited  with  trials  from  the  hand  of  your  heavenly 
Father — and  at  some  period  or  other  of  their  course  who 
has  not?  Any  of  you  who  have  suffered  in  your  fami- 
lies, in  your  property,  in  your  health  ;  any  who  have 
come,  it  may  be  even  this  day,  from  scenes  of  sorrow  to 
the  house  of  God  !  While  the  portion  of  Scripture  before 
you  is  well  calculated,  by  God's  blessing,  to  minister  to 
14* 


J[  £2  SANCTIFIED  AFFLICTIONS. 

your  peace,  be  assured  it  can  only  do  so,  by  ministering 
to  your  holiness.  It  indeed  tells  you  that  your  afflictions 
shall  work  for  your  happiness  and  glory;  but  is  this  an 
unqualified  assertion?  Do  all  afflictions  minister  Urns 
mercifully  to  the  soul  which  suffers  them  ?  Far,  very 
far  from  it.  Many  a  man  leaves  a  bed  of  sickness  with 
a  heart  more  hardened  against  God,  a  life  more  totally  at 
variance  with  his  will,  than  he  entered  it.  Many  a  mo- 
ther commits  her  child  to  the  grave,  but  does  not,  alas ! 
bury  with  it  her  own  hostility  and  indifference  to  the 
things  of  God.  Many  a  one  loses  his  health,  his  pro- 
perty, all  that  he  possesses  in  this  world,  without  obtain- 
ing the  smallest  portion  in  that  better  part  which  shall 
not  be  taken  from  him.  Does  the  experience  of  none 
among  you,  my  brethren,  justify  this?  Have  none 
among  you  suffered  frequently,  suffered  deeply,  from 
the  hand  of  an  afflicting  God,  and  yet  are  little  conscious 
of  having  ever  derived  any  real  spiritual  benefit?  Are 
there  to  none  among  you  events  in  your  past  life,  that 
weigh  heavily  upon  your  spirit,  which  you  can  never 
eradicate  from  your  memory,  and  never  dwell  upon  with- 
out the  most  painful  and  distressing  feelings,  and  yet 
have  no  reason,  no  scriptural  reason,  for  supposing,  that 
these,  or  any  of  these,  have  worked,  or  are  working,  for 
good?  Then  let  us  examine  a  little  into  the  cause  ;  this 
is  so  contrary  to  God's  intention,  that  there  must  be  some 
fault,  some  failure  in  yourselves.  It  is  not  improbable 
that  we  shall  find  the  cause  of  this  failure,  if  we  look  at 
the  limitation  of  the  apostle  in  the  text;  he  assures  you 
that  your  afflictions  shall  work  for  good,  while  you  "  look 
not  at  the  things  which  are  seen,  but  at  the  things  which 
are  not  seen." 

Here,  then,  is  at  once  the  key  to  the  mystery ;  here  is 
the  reason,  if  it  be  so,  plainly  set  before  you,  why  no 


SANCTIFIED  AFFLICTIONS. 

trial,  no  sorrow,  no  affliction  of  yours,  has  ever  really- 
worked  for  your  future  glory.  You  have  contented 
yourself,  while  under  it,  at  looking  at  the  things  which 
are  seen.  You  have  dwelt  solely  or  chiefly  upon  your 
trouble,  or  your  disappointment,  and  never  raised  your 
eyes  beyond  it ;  you  have  viewed  it  in  all  its  distressing 
bearings,  have  pondered  upon  every  secondary  cause 
which  led  to  it,  have  dwelt  upon  all  its  sorrowful  effects, 
have  thought  how  greatly  such  an  event,  if  it  had  occur- 
red, would  have  mitigated  it,  how  surely  such  a  line  of 
conduct  would  have  prevented  it,  how  much  less  you 
should  have  suffered,  if  there  had  been  but  one  little 
circumstance  in  your  calamity  different  from  what  it  was. 
In  fact  you  have  kept  your  eye  fixed  upon  i4  the  things 
which  are  seen,"  and  you  have,  in  consequence,  missed 
the  blessing  which  you  might  otherwise  have  reaped. 
You  have  just  adopted  the  precise  line  of  conduct  depre- 
cated in  the  text,  and  which  never  has,  and  never  shall 
(so  God's  Word  declares),  bring  either  peace,  or  comfort, 
or  profit  to  the  afflicted  soul.  My  beloved  brethren,  much 
of  the  choicest  portion  of  Christianity  consists  in  this,  in 
closing  the  eye  of  sense,  and  opening  the  eye  of  faith. 
Adopt  now  then  for  the  first  time  this  new  line  of  con- 
duct; you  have  gained  neither  present  comfort,  nor 
future  hope,  by  all  that  you  have  hitherto  attempted  ; 
surely,  then,  if  it  be  but  an  experiment,  it  is  worth  the 
trial.  Endeavour,  therefore,  to  follow  the  injunction  of 
the  apostle ;  cease  to  dwell  upon  your  troubles  and  your 
sorrows,  to  look  only  at  the  things  which  are  seen ;  close 
this  eye  of  sense,  and  begin  by  opening  the  eye  of  faith, 
to  look  at  "  the  things  which  are  not  seen."  Instead  of 
the  poor  perishing  creature  which  has  been  the  sole  cause 
of  your  sorrows,  the  sole  object  of  your  regards,  look  at 
the  eternal  God  who  is  "  All  in  All."  Instead  of  poring 


SANCTIFIED  AFFLICTIONS. 


upon  the  trials  and  miseries  of  time,  look  at  once  with 
the  steady  gaze  of  faith,  which  will  penetrate  the  veil  ; 
look  at  once  upon  (he  glories  of  eternity.  Instead  of 
looking  after  those  who  have  been  taken  from  you,  those 
in  whose  love  and  friendship  you  delighted,  look  at  him, 
"  whom  having  not  seen,"  his  people  "  love,"  even  at 
that  Saviour  who  to  every  believing  soul  is  "  precious." 

How  astonishing  would  be  the  influence  upon  all  our 
minds  if  we  could  fully  realize  this  ;  if  we  could  dwell 
with  a  constant  meditation  upon  these  unseen  realities. 
I  know  how  difficult  it  is  to  lift  up  the  sorrowing  head 
and  to  raise  the  weeping  eyes  to  heaven;  but  there  is 
one  who  is  able  and  willing  to  aid  you  in  this  blessed 
work,  even  the  Holy  Ghost  the  Comforter.  Pray  for  his 
light  and  power,  and  he  will  take  your  eyes  off  the 
"  things  which  are  seen,"  however  endeared,  and  how- 
ever precious,  and  fix  them  upon  the  unseen  things  which 
lie  before  you.  The  effect  of  such  a  change  is  incalcula- 
ble, it  will  influence  the  events  of  every  day,  the  feelings 
of  every  hour.  From  the  moment  you  thus  begin,  under 
the  teaching  of  God's  good  Spirit,  to  make  "the  things 
which  are  not  seen"  the  object  of  your  thoughts,  you 
will  find  a  new  temper  of  heart,  a  new  bias  to  the  soul  ; 
there  will  be  an  eternal  principle  within  you  carrying  all 
your  feelings  forth  to  eternal  ends.  As  it  is  in  a  far 
smaller  degree  in  worldly  matters,  so  will  it  be  in  an  in- 
conceivably great  and  glorious  degree  in  spiritual  things. 
Every  worldly  object  appears  large  in  proportion  to  its 
nearness.  While,  therefore,  all  the  petty  business  and  in- 
terests of  earth  appear  of  a  most  absorbing  greatness  to 
those  who  are  for  ever  walking  up  and  down  among 
them,  without  a  thought  or  a  glance  beyond  them;  to 
you,  who  have  thus,  as  it  were,  got  upon  the  mount  of 
eternity,  they  will  be  as  mere  specks  in  the  distant  pros- 


SANCTIFIED  AFFLICTIONS. 


165 


pect,  all  will  be  contracted  within  their  true  and  proper 
limits.  You  will  learn  to  look  upon  the  weightiest  busi- 
ness of  earth  as  children's  pastime,  compared  with  the 
enjoyment  of  God,  and  the  living  for  ever  in  the  presence 
of  a  loved  and  loving  Saviour.  "  The  things  which  are 
seen  are  temporal,  but  the  things  which  are  not  seen  are 
eternal."  Yes,  this  is  the  great  distinguishing  character- 
istic ;  this  it  is  which  gives  them  their  influence  and  their 
power;  you  look  at  the  poor  drooping  blessings  of  earth, 
and  you  feel  that  in  a  few  years  even,  at  the  best,  they 
must  inevitably  wither  within  your  grasp ;  you  turn  to 
the  glories  of  heaven,  and  you  see  them  in  all  their  native 
freshness  and  youth  and  beauty,  when  ten  thousand 
centuries  shall  have  run  their  unwearied  course.  You 
look  at  the  bitterest  cup  of  sorrow  which  God  has  ever, 
or  shall  ever  put  into  your  hands,  and  you  will  drink  it 
almost  without  a  sigh,  if  you  will  but  turn  your  eyes 
from  its  contents,  and  fix  them  upon  those  rivers  of  joy 
which  are  running  for  ever  at  God's  right  hand  ;  and 
which,  through  the  blood  of  Jesus,  may  all  be  made 
your  own.  These  will  be  among  the  first  and  most  ob- 
vious effects  of  dwelling  upon  the  unseen  realities  of 
God.  But  there  will  be  far  greater  and  more  blessed  ef- 
fects than  these.  As  you  become  more  and  more  inte- 
rested in  them,  more  entirely  devoted  to  them,  and  occu- 
pied among  them,  your  thoughts  and  your  tempers  and 
affections  and  pursuits  will  all  be  led  to  harmonize  with 
them  in  a  manner  which  you  can  now  scarcely  antici- 
pate ;  and  you  will  daily  be  obtaining  a  stronger  assur- 
ance that  you  are  indeed  accepted  of  God  ;  that  Christ  is 
yours,  that  the  pardon  of  sin  is  yours,  that  Divine  favour 
is  yours,  and  that  heaven  is  your  own.  Surely,  then, 
you  will  not  hesitate  to  call  the  heaviest  affliction  light, 
the  longest  trial  momentary,  if  it  can  be  thus  made  in- 


166 


SANCTIFIED  AFFLICTIONS. 


strumental  in  working  for  you  a  "  far  more  exceeding 
and  eternal  weight  of  glory."  What  that  glory  is,  we 
are  unable  either  to  know,  or  to  describe,  for  an  apostle 
was  obliged  to  exclaim,  "  It  doth  not  yet  appear  what  we 
shall  be."  Sufficient  is,  however,  told  us  in  the  Word 
of  God,  to  satisfy  the  largest  imagination,  to  fulfil  the 
most  ample  desires.  All  evil  shall  there  be  removed, 
all  good  shall  there  be  enjoyed,  and  both  throughout 
eternity. 

All  evil  shall  be  removed.  There  are  but  three  things 
which  greatly  trouble  the  people  of  God  on  earth,  and 
not  one  of  them  shall  be  found  in  heaven. 

The  first  is,  sin,  the  continual  backsliding  of  our  cor- 
rupt hearts;  but  there,  there  will  be  neither  sin  nor 
temptation,  neither  devils  to  tempt,  nor  a  corrupt  heart  to 
be  tempted.  We  shall  be  all  pure,  as  well  as  all  glo- 
rious, for  the  Word  of  God  has  declared  that  his  people 
shall  be  presented  "a  glorious  Church,  not  having  spot 
or  wrinkle,  or  any  such  thing,  but  holy  and  without 
blemish." 

The  second  is,  the  frequent  interruption  of  the  sense 
of  God's  favour.  We  are  here  in  a  perpetual  state  of  cloud 
and  sunshine ;  now,  God  lifts  up  the  light  of  his  counte- 
nance upon  us,  and  we  are  cheered  ;  and  again,  he  hides 
his  face  from  us,  and  we  are  troubled ;  but  there,  the 
communion  will  be  constant,  a  day  without  night,  an 
everlasting  sunshine  without  a  cloud.  Perpetual  service 
and  perpetual  enjoyment.  "  They  are  before  the  throne 
of  God,  and  serve  him  day  and  night  in  his  temple." 

The  third  thing  which  troubles  us  here  is,  the  frequent 
recurrence  of  anxiety  and  difficulty  and  disappointment 
and  sorrow.  This  also  shall  be  at  an  end.  There  is  no 
sighing,  no  sorrowing,  no  anxiety  there.  Affliction  gives 


SANCTIFIED  AFFLICTIONS. 

place  to  glory — the  light  affliction  which  is  but  for  a  mo- 
ment,— to  the  exceeding  and  eternal  weight  of  glory. 

While  all  evil  shall  thus  be  removed,  all  good  shall 
as  certainly  be  enjoyed.     The  great  object  of  our  eternal 
blessedness  is  God  himself.     We  now  enjoy  something 
of  him,  but  it  is  through  a  medium  of  a  most  imperfect 
nature,  viz.,  through  a  weak  and  wavering  faith,  and  a 
frail  and  feeble  love :  there  it  shall  be  through  the  me- 
dium of  the  clearest  vision  and  of  the  most  perfect  love. 
If  it  be  declared  in  the  word  of  truth  that  even  here, 
"  he  who  is  joined  to  the  Lord  is  one  spirit,"  though  the 
union  be  of  that  most  imperfect  nature  to  which  I  have 
just  alluded,  what  will  it  be  in  that  blessed  place  where 
the  union  shall  be  complete ;  when  "  we  shall  see  the 
King   in   his  beauty,"  and  when   our  souls   shall    be 
"filled  with  all  the  fulness  of  God?"     My  brethren,  it 
is  hard  for  me  to  speak  of  heaven,  it  is  impossible  for  any 
one  to  speak  correctly  of  it,  until  the  great  voice  call 
upon  us  to  come  up  and  see  what  God  has  prepared  for 
those  who  love  him.     It  is  enough  to  know  that  perfect 
vision  shall  produce  perfect  assimilation  ;  "  We  shall  be 
like  him,"  says  St.  John,  "for  we  shall  see  him  as  he 
is."     As  iron,  by  lying  in  the  fire,  becomes  as  it  were  all 
fire,  so  shall  the  presence  and  sight  of  God  our  Saviour 
transform  us  into  the  perfect  resemblance  of  God  our  Sa- 
viour.    While  perfect  assimilation  shall  produce  perfect 
happiness  and  perfect  satisfaction,  for  the  Psalmist  de- 
clares, "  When  I  wake  up  after  thy  likeness,  I  shall  be 
satisfied  with  it ;"  the  soul,  with  all  its  infinite  capacities 
and  all  its  infinite  desires,  shall  be  completely,  fully,  and 
for  ever  satisfied.     This  is  all  that  God  has  revealed,  all 
I  desire  to  know  ;  in  having  God  we  shall  have  enough, 
and  in  seeing,  loving,  and  being  made  like  him,  we  shall 
at  once  enter  upon  a  state  of  happiness  as  infinite  in 


168  SANCTIFIED  AFFLICTIONS. 

extent  as  it  will  be  eternal  in  duration.  That  this  may 
one  day  be  experimentally  known  and  enjoyed  by  every 
soul  who  now  hears  me  and  by  myself,  may  God  of  his 
infinite  mercy  grant,  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  to 
whom,  &c. 


SERMON  XIV. 

REDEEM   THE   TIME. 


EPHESIANS  v.  16. 
Redeeming  the  time,  because  the  days  are  evil. 

OP  all  the  talents  with  which  the  Almighty  here  on 
earth  intrusts  his  creatures,  time  is  the  most  important, 
and  we  fear  we  must  add  the  most  frequently  abused. 
Our  infancy  is  spent  in  idleness,  our  youth  in  thought- 
lessness, our  age  in  business;  but  which  of  them,  as  re- 
gards the  great  mass  of  mankind,  can  be  said  to  be 
employed  for  God,  or  for  the  important  purpose  for  which 
it  is  bestowed?  All  complain  of  the  shortness  of  time, 
and  yet  most  possess  more  than  they  know  what  to  do 
with,  and  every  one  more  than  he  employs  well.  Still 
it  is  of  this  much- wasted  and  misapplied  talent  that  we 
shall  one  day  be  called  upon  to  render  a  strict  account. 
Consider,  then,  how  you  would  yourselves  act  under 
similar  circumstances,  and  you  may  learn  to  know  what 
you  have  reason  to  expect  at  the  hands  of  God. 

If  you  were  to  hire  a  labourer  for  a  day's  work,  and  he 
were  to  come  to  you  in  the  evening,  and  upon  your  asking 
him,  "  How  have  you  spent  your  day?  what  have  you 
done  for  me?"  he  were  to  reply,  "I  have  spent  four 

15  169 


170 


REDEEM  THE  TIME. 


hours  in  loitering1  or  talking  with  my  fellow-labourers, 
and  four  at  my  meals,  and  three  more  in  working  for 
myself,  and  the  remaining  hour  I  have  dedicated  to  your 
service;"  would  you  be  satisfied  with  such  a  reply? 
would  you  pay  that  man  his  wages?  I  trow  not.  And 
yet  let  me  ask  you  what  better  account,  when  you  retire 
to  rest  at  night,  can  you  give  to  your  Heavenly  Master 
of  many  a  day  which  passes  over  you?  After  you  have 
deducted  all  that  has  been  spent  with  your  fellow- 
labourers,  at  your  meals,  and  in  labouring  for  your  bread 
which  perisheth,  what  remains  for  God?  And  is  not 
God  a  God  of  recompense  ?  and  has  he  not  declared  that 
as  a  man  soweth  so  shall  he  also  reap?  Truly,  then, 
unless  we  can  render  some  better  account  than  this,  our 
day  of  reckoning  will  be  a  fearful  day,  and  our  sentence 
the  sentence  of  the  unprofitable  and  idle  servant.  Let 
us  then  seek  for  the  aid  of  the  Divine  Spirit,  to  enable 
us  to  receive  and  to  apply  the  valuable  injunction  of  the 
text ;  that  we  may  be  taught  so  to  employ  our  time,  that 
when  summoned  to  render  an  account,  we  may  do  it 
with  joy. 

I  shall  consider,  then, 

I.  What  it  is  to  redeem  time. 

II.  From  what  we  should  redeem  it. 

III.  For  what  we  should  redeem  it. 

In  explaining  what  is  meant  by  redeeming  time,  I 
shall  take  the  most  simple  illustration  possible ;  the  word 
is  in  the  original  to  buy  out,  and  the  English  word 
redeem  expresses  this  as  closely  as  possible. 

If  an  estate  be  mortgaged,  if  an  article  be  pledged,  the 
owner  cannot  repossess  himself  of  them,  unless  he  be 
able  to  buy  them  out,  or  redeem  them.  By  the  use  of 
this  term,  therefore,  the  apostle  not  merely  urges  us  to 
future  diligence,  but  most  strongly  implies  our  former 


REDEEM  THE  TIME.  J^ 

improvidence  and  misuse  of  time ;  the  very  fact  that  it 
is  necessary  to  redeem  it,  implies  that  we  have,  as  it  were, 
mortgaged  it  to  Satan,  pledged  it  to  vanity  and  sin. 
Now,  strictly  speaking,  time  misapplied  is  irrevocable; 
the  hours  and  days  and  years  that  have  been  so  improvi- 
dently  disposed  of,  are  among  those  unredeemed  pledges 
which  must  remain,  as  evidences  of  our  folly  and  our 
guilt,  to  all  eternity.  The  sin  may,  blessed  be  God,  be 
removed  by  a  penitent  application  to  the  blood  of  our 
great  Redeemer;  the  guilt  may  be  washed  away,  the 
iniquity  be  blotted  out  for  ever ;  but  the  years  so  spent 
can  never  be  recalled,  redeemed,  or  brought  back  again; 
the  hours  which  we  have  sacrificed  before  the  shrine  of 
foolish  or  of  guilty  pleasure,  can  never  now  (as  they 
might  once  have  been)  be  laid  upon  the  altar  of  the 
living  God.  That  blessed  privilege,  as  regards  those 
hours,  is  for  ever  lost  to  us;  that  opportunity  for  ever 
passed  away.  Once  gone,  they  are  gone  for  ever;  and 
hours  which  might  have  been  adding  to  the  happiness 
of  our  fellow-creatures,  to  the  increase,  of  our  own  joy, 
to  the  glory  of  God,  to  the  extension  of  our  Redeemer's 
kingdom,  to  the  jewels  in  our  Redeemer's  crown,  have 
perhaps  (how  fearful  is  the  thought)  been  employed  in 
aiding  others,  by  our  countenance  and  example,  in  their 
progress  to  that  gulf  from  which  we  ourselves,  by  the 
undeserved  goodness  of  our  God,  may  have  so  mercifully 
escaped. 

Since,  then,  the  advice  of  the  apostle,  in  its  literal  and 
strictest  sense,  cannot  be  applied  to  the  time  which  is 
passed,  we  must  endeavour  to  render  it  applicable  in  our 
own  case  to  that  which  may  remain  to  us.  My  breth- 
ren, who  shall  say  what  this  maybe?  It  is  easy  to 
number  the  days  that  have  fled,  but  who  can  calculate 
what  is  to  come?  Can  the  youngest  or  the  strongest 


REDEEM  THE,  TIME. 

here  present  say,  that  he  assuredly  shall  hail  the  opening 
even  of  another  month  in  the  same  health,  under  the 
same  circumstances,  or  even  in  the  same  state  of  exist- 
ence, in  which  he  has  beheld  the  present?  You  know 
that  he  cannot.  You  know  that  your  sentence  may 
have  gone  forth,  that  your  hours  may  even  now  be  num- 
bered. When,  then,  I  say  to  you,  "  Redeem  the  time," 
I  urge  it  both  upon  your  conscience  and  upon  my  own 
to  delay  no  longer,  but  to  begin  in  good  earnest  to  live 
to  God,  to  seek,  if  you  have  not  yet  sought  and  found, 
a  Saviour ;  to  devote  not  merely  this  Sabbath-hour,  or 
the  Sabbath-day,  to  his  honour  and  glory,  and  the  soul's 
great  work  for  eternity,  but  every  day  and  every  hour, 
(so  far  as  the  absolutely  necessary  business  and  relaxa- 
tion of  life  will  admit,)  to  the  same  blessed  and  all-im- 
portant occupation. 

I  proceed,  then,  to  consider  from  what  you  are  to 
redeem  the  time  which  yet  remains  to  you. 

First,  then,  I  charge  you  to  redeem  it  from  sloth  and 
procrastination.  An  idle  Christian  is  a  disgrace  to  the 
very  name  he  bears. 

Did  our  Divine  Master,  while  on  earth,  so  occupy  his 
time  about  his  Father's  business,  that  he  often,  as  the 
Evangelist  declares,  had  not  time  to  eat  and  to  drink, 
and  can  you  imagine  that  you  are  among  the  number  of 
his  followers,  when  you  find  time,  perhaps,  for  little  else? 
When  every  duty  that  is  urged  upon  you,  is  too  toilsome 
or  too  troublesome;  and  when  you  would  rather  sit  for 
days  in  perfect  inactivity,  or  in  the  most  trifling  occupa- 
tions of  this  poor,  miserable,  transitory  life,  than  stir  one 
hand,  or  engage  in  one  labour,  for  the  glory  of  God  or 
the  eternal  existence  which  is  approaching?  How  totally 
different  would  be  the  whole  aspect  of  society,  of  our 
country,  of  the  world,  if  every  Christian,  the  moment  he 


REDEEM  THE  TIME. 


ITS 


begins  to  be  awakened  to  the  things  of  God,  were  in 
good  earnest  to  set  himself  to  labour  for  God,  and  what- 
ever his  hand  found  to  do,  to  do  it  with  his  might. 

It  is  fearful  to  think  how  often,  when  Satan  cannot 
storm  the  citadel  by  open  violence,  he  thus  possesses 
himself  of  it  by  secret  intrigue,  and  prevails  to  the  ruin 
of  a  soul  through  idleness  alone.  You  who  would  start 
with  abhorrence  if  the  great  tempter  were  to  bring  to  you 
a  gross  temptation,  yet  fall  willingly  into  his  snares  of 
indolence  and  procrastination.  For  instance,  in  the 
morning  you  say  there  will  be  time  to  read  the  Word  of 
God,  to  pray,  to  meditate,  to  examine  into  your  heart,  in 
the  evening;  but  in  the  evening  some  more  pressing 
occupation  presents  itself,  and  when  this  is  over  it  is  too 
late,  and  these  great  duties  are  again  postponed.  To- 
day there  is  little  opportunity  of  doing  good,  of  fulfilling, 
or  even  of  commencing  some  work  of  kindness,  or  labour 
of  love,  which  you  propose,  for  promoting  the  comforts 
of  your  fellow-creatures,  or  the  glory  of  God,  but  to- 
morrow you  are  assured  that  there  will  be  time,  and  to 
spare ;  I  need  not  say,  that  that  to-morrow  never  comes. 
O  how  many  immortal  souls  are  thus  slumbered  and 
trifled  and  procrastinated  away,  until  the  chamber  of 
sickness  hears  the  ten-thousand-times  repeated  fallacy, 
"  When  I  recover,  every  day  shall  be  spent  for  God ;" 
and  the  bed  of  death  alone  demonstrates  the  emptiness 
and  the  delusion  of  it. 

Secondly,  I  would  urge  you  to  redeem  your  time  from 
vain  and  foolish  company,  and  idle  and  unprofitable 
pleasures.  There  is  nothing  which  tends  more  to  rob 
the  heart  of  every  spiritual  affection,  to  deaden  the  love 
to  God,  to  make  all  religious  exercises  dull  and  unprofit- 
able, than  these  great  time-destroyers.  Thus  the  Prophet 
Isaiah,  describing  persons  who  so  occupy  themselves, 
15* 


174 


REDEEM  THE  TIME. 


says,  "  The  harp  and  the  viol,  the  tabret  and  pipe  and 
wine,  are  in  their  feasts;  but  they  regard  not  the  work 
of  the  Lord,  neither  consider  the  operation  of  his  hands." 
Will  you  ask  in  reply,  is  then  the  spiritual  life  of  the 
Christian,  as  portrayed  by  the  example  of  his  Divine 
Master,  and  urged  upon  him  by  his  commands,  at  variance 
with  all  the  innocent  intercourse  of  life?  If  we  become 
really  in  earnest  in  the  great  work  of  salvation,  must  we 
give  up  our  friends,  our  social  meetings,  and  many  of 
the  greatest  enjoyments  of  our  present  lot?  This  is  by 
no  means  implied  in  the  command  to  redeem  your  time 
from  foolish  company,  and  idle  and  unprofitable  pleasures. 
When  you  become  distinctly  and  decidedly  the  friends  of 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  they  who  are  not  his  friends  will 
(such  is  the  fashion  of  the  world)  very  shortly  cease  to 
be  your  friends ;  while  they  who  love  him,  will  infallibly 
love  you.  And  so  far  from  your  being  required  to  give 
up  your  social  meetings,  and  the  innocent  intercourse  of 
life,  none  really  taste  their  pleasure  in  its  least  imperfect 
state,  but  those  who  meet  in  social  intercourse,  as  they 
ought  to  meet,  the  Spirit  of  whose  God  has  told  them, 
"  Whether  ye  eat  or  drink,  or  whatsoever  ye  do,  do  all  to 
the  glory  of  God." 

Lastly,  I  would  urge  you  to  redeem  your  time  from 
worldly  cares  and  worldly  business.  Our  Lord  himself 
has  declared  that  "  a  man's  life  consisteth  not  in  the 
abundance  of  the  things  which  he  possesseth,"  and  he 
exemplifies  this  truth  by  the  story  of  the  foolish  rich  man, 
who  "  laid  up  treasure  for  himself,  but  was  not  rich  to- 
wards God."  If  you  will  act  faith  upon  the  promises  of 
God,  and  "  seek  first  his  kingdom  and  his  righteousness," 
his  Word  (that  Word,  which,  although  heaven  and  earth 
pass  away,  he  has  declared  shall  never  pass  away,)  his 
Word,  I  say,  is  pledged  to  you,  that  "  all  these  things 


REDEEM  THE  TIME. 


175 


shall  be  added  unto  you."  Let  me  then  intreat  you 
while  you  are  labouring,  as  you  ought  to  labour,  care- 
fully, sedulously,  for  the  things  of  this  world,  still  to  re- 
deem some  portion  of  your  precious  time  from  their 
engrossing  grasp.  Give  some  portion,  however  small,  of 
every  day  to  God,  to  private  prayer  and  quiet  meditation 
upon  the  things  which  belong  to  your  peace  ;  to  reading, 
carefully  and  prayerfully,  his  blessed  Word.  O,  re- 
member that  your  soul  may  perish  in  the  very  midst  of 
the  highest  respectability  and  the  most  unimpeachable 
moral  conduct ;  that  you  may  destroy  it  as  certainly  and 
as  irrevocably  by  sins  of  omission  as  of  commission. 
Think  you  that  the  rich  man  of  whom  our  Lord  has 
told  us,  would  not  have  bartered  all  these  recollections, 
and  all  the  miserable  comfort  he* could  extract  from  them 
for  one  drop  of  water  to  cool  his  tongue. 

Yes!  it  does  not  require  to  have  passed  into  the  unseen 
world  to  tell  you  this.  We  behold  too  many,  far  too 
many  instances,  even  on  this  side  the  grave,  when  the 
worn-out  spirit,  leaving  a  world  for  which  alone  it  has 
hitherto  lived  and  striven  and  laboured ;  whose  applause 
was  its  very  breath,  and  whose  riches  its  reward,  for  a 
world  of  which  it  has  heard  but  little  and  cared  less; 
would  at  that  moment  gladly,  O  how  gladly,  exchange 
the  richest  inheritance  which  mortal  ever  squandered 
upon  earth,  to  redeem  one  little  hour  for  prayer  and 
penitence  and  pardon  and  preparation  for  heaven.  Alas ! 
how  vain  a  wish,  and  yet  how  natural  to  experience, 
how  agonizing  to  behold !  Would  you  avoid  it,  then, 
"  redeem  the  time;"  be  earnest,  be  instant  in  your  re- 
solution ;  "  rejoice  as  though  you  rejoiced  not,  weep  as 
though  you  wept  not,  buy  as  though  you  possessed  not, 
and  use  this  world  as  not  abusing  it;  for  the  time  is 
short,  and  the  fashion  of  this  world  passeth  away." 
"* 


REDEEM  THE  TIME. 

A  very  few  words,  in  conclusion,  upon  the  objects  for 
which  you  are  to  "redeem  the  time/'  and  I  have  done. 

The  first  great  object  is  for  the  glorifying  of  God. 
This  was  one  of  our  dying  Lord's  last  declarations :  "  I 
have  glorified  thee  on  earth,  I  have  finished  the  work 
which  thou  gavest  me  to  do."  If  you  are  a  follower  of 
the  Lord  Jesus,  you  must  strive  by  his  grace  to  be  ena- 
bled to  say  the  same.  He  had  his  work,  and  you  have 
yours.  His  was  the  work  of  redemption,  yours  is  the 
work  of  constant  service  and  continued  thankfulness. 
You  must  employ  every  hour  you  can  redeem  from  the 
idleness,  the  pleasure,  the  labours  of  life,  for  this  great 
end.  You  must  passively  glorify  him  by  the  meek  and 
patient  and  thankful  endurance  of  every  trial,  every  sorrow, 
every  affliction,  which  he-lays  upon  you.  You  must  ac- 
tively glorify  him  by  your  untiring  efforts  in  every  labour  of 
love  which  he  calls  you  to  perform  for  his  name's  sake. 
You  were  created  for  this  end,  "  The  Lord  hath  made 
all  things  for  himself,"  says  the  inspired  word.  You 
were  redeemed  for  this  end,  "  That  we  should  be  to  the 
praise  of  his  glory,"  says  the  apostle.  And  will  you  fail 
of  the  one  great  end  for  which  you  were  created  and  re- 
deemed? No!  If  you  have  indeed  been  born  again  of 
the  Spirit,  your  increasing  inquiry  will  be,  "  Lord,  what 
wouldst  thou  have  me  to  do?"  And  if  there  be  an 
object  proposed  to  you,  by  which,  through  your  exer- 
tions, your  labours,  your  efforts,  however  self-denying  or 
unpleasant  to  the  natural  man,  you  may  hope  to  glorify 
God,  the  cheerful  unsolicited  language  of  your  heart 
will  be  the  language  of  the  prophet  Isaiah  of  old,  "  Here 
am  I,  send  me." 

Above  all,  far,  infinitely  above  all,  you  will  "  redeem 
the  time,"  that  you  "  may  win  Christ,  and  be  found  in 
him."  Every  hour  you  can  redeem  will  be  made  in 


REDEEM  THE  TIME. 


177 


some  manner  or  other  to  contribute  to  this  important  and 
blessed  end.  This  is  the  one  great  object  of  the  be- 
liever's search  on  earth  ;  to  know  more,  to  obey  more,  to 
love  more, — the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  Alpha  and 
Omega,  the  Author  and  Finisher,  the  beginning  and  the 
end,  the  first  and  the  last.  To  adopt  the  words  of  one 
of  the  most  beautiful  of  the  Homilies  of  o-ur  Church, 
"  Christ  is  the  light,  let  us  receive  the  light ;  Christ  is  the 
truth,  let  us  believe  the  truth;  Christ  is  the  way,  let  us 
follow  the  wa}r."  And  since  time  is  passing,  and  eternity 
approaching,  let  us  "  Redeem  the  time,  because  the  days 
are  evil."  "  Let  us  receive  Christ,  not  for  a  time,  but 
for  ever ;  let  us  believe  his  Word,  not  for  a  time,  but  for 
ever;  let  us  become  his  servants,  not  for  a  time,  but  for 
ever;  in  consideration,  that  he  hath  redeemed  and 
saved  us,  not  for  a  time,  but  for  ever ;  and  will  receive 
us  into  his  heavenly  kingdom,  there  to  reign  with  him, 
not  for  a  time,  but  for  ever.  To  him,  therefore,  with  the 
Father,  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  be  all  honour,  praise,  and 
glory,  for  ever  and  ever."* 

*  Homily  for  the  Nativity. 


SERMON  XV. 

THE   JUDGMENT. 

ACTS  xvii.  31. 

He  hath  appointed  a  day,  in  which  he  will  judge  the  world  in 
righteousness  by  that  man  whom  he  hath  ordained ;  whereof  he 
hath  given  assurance  unto  all  men,  in  that  he  hath  raised  him 
from  the  dead. 

"  IF  Christ  be  not  risen,  then  is  our  preaching  vain, 
and  your  faith  is  vain  also.  If  Christ  be  not  risen,  then 
they  which  have  fallen  asleep  in  Christ  are  perished." 
Such  are  the  declarations  of  God's  unerring  word  upon 
the  subject  of  to-day's  high  festival. 

The  resurrection  of  Christ,  then,  is  the  great,  the  vital 
fact  of  his  religion,  by  which  God  publicly  announced 
that  the  ransom  had  not  only  been  paid  for  fallen  man, 
but  accepted  by  his  Maker ;  that  the  Saviour  who  had 
entered  into  the  prison-house  of  the  grave  as  man's 
surety,  had  been  liberated ;  that  man's  debt  was  can- 
celled, that  God  was  reconciled,  that  man  was  free.  It 
has  pleased  God,  therefore,  that  this  great  and  blessed 
truth  should  be  established  by  every  species  of  evidence 
of  which  such  a  fact  is  capable ;  by  the  testimony  of 
friends ;  by  the  confession  of  enemies ;  by  the  announce- 
ITS 


THE  JUDGMENT. 

ment  of  angels :  by  the  declaration  of  God  himself.  So 
overpowering,  indeed,  is  the  mass  of  evidence,  that  it  is 
not  too  much  to  say,  that  no  single  fact  in  the  history  of 
the  world  has  come  down  to  us  with  such  an  array  of 
witnesses  as  the  resurrection  of  Jesus.  To  dwell,  how- 
ever, either  upon  the  details  of  such  a  history,  with 
which  you  have  been  familiar  from  your  childhood,  or 
upon  the  minute  and  conclusive  evidence  of  a  fact  of 
which  probably  no  individual  before  me  possesses  a 
single  doubt,  would  appear  a  sad  misuse  of  such  precious 
opportunities  as  the  present.  Taking,  therefore,  these 
things  for  granted,  as  in  a  Christian  congregation  I  feel 
fully  authorized  to  do,  I  shall  rather  employ  myself,  in 
the  endeavour  to  set  before  you  some  great  and  important 
deduction  from  the  event  which  we  commemorate  this 
day,  than  to  dilate  upon  that  event  itself. 

The  one  great  truth,  then,  to  which,  looking  simply 
for  help  to  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God,  I  would  this  morning 
direct  your  attention,  as  developed  in  the  text,  is  this ; 
the  universal  judgment  of  the  last  day :  and  I  shall  en- 
deavour to  show,  from  the  words  before  us,  first,  the  cer- 
tainty that  this  universal  judgment  will  take  place; 
secondly,  the  manner  in  which  (including  one  marked 
peculiarity)  it  will  be  conducted;  and,  lastly,  the  person 
who  shall  come  to  be  our  Judge. 

And  first,  as  to  its  certainty.  Had  the  bare  possibility 
been  revealed  to  us,  that  after  this  life  ended,  there  might 
be  some  account  to  be  rendered  of  all  that  had  been  trans- 
acted here ;  had  the  probability  been  suggested,  that  some 
who  had  once  lived  here  below  should  stand  at  some 
given  clay  before  an  unerring  tribunal,  and  that  each  and 
all  of  us  might  possibly  be  among  their  number,  is  there 
a  thoughtful  man,  is  there  a  prudent  man  living  upon 
earth,  whose  mind  would  not  occasionally  have  looked 


THE  JUDGMENT. 


forward  to  such  a  season,  and  backward  to  the  events  of 
his  own  life,  that  he  might  see  in  what  manner  he  was 
prepare^  to  meet  it?  But,  brethren,  how  very  far  does 
the  reality  exceed  the  conjecture  ;—  possibility  and  pro- 
bability are  out  of  the  question  ;  it  has  been  made  the 
subject  of  a  distinct  revelation  and  assurance  of  the  living 
God  ;  and  this  assurance  comes  to  us  not  founded  upon 
an  argument,  but  upon  a  fact,  upon  that  very  fact  which 
we  this  day  commemorate  :  "  Whereof,"  namely,  of  the 
great  doctrine  of  a  universal  judgment,  says  the  apostle, 
"  God  hath  given  assurance  unto  all  men  in  that  he  hath 
raised  Christ  from  the  dead."  Observe  the  strength  of 
the  apostle's  argument.  Our  Lord,  in  the  days  of  his 
flesh,  made  two  assertions,  both  equally  improbable  to 
mortal  eye,  equally  impossible  to  mortal  agency.  He 
asserted,  first,  that  if  the  Jews  destroyed  his  human  body, 
in  three  days  he  would  raise  it  up  again  ;  and,  secondly, 
that  as  surely  as  he  should  do  this,  so  certainly  would  he 
do  the  same  with  every  human  body  which  ever  had  ex- 
isted, or  ever  should  exist,  and  on  some  great  and  coming 
day  would  summon  all  to  his  own  judgment-seat.  Now 
the  first  of  these  two  assertions  was,  as  on  this  day,  ful- 
filled, for  "  Christ  is  risen  ;"  the  certainty  of  the  second, 
therefore,  is  placed  beyond  a  doubt,  rendered  absolutely 
unquestionable;  and  our  Church  does  not  hesitate  to 
profess  it  an  article  of  her  creed  :  "  He  sitteth  on  the 
right  hand  of  God  the  Father  Almighty,  from  thence  he 
shall  come  to  judge  the  quick  and  the  dead."  —  "  We 
believe  that  thou  shalt  come  to  be  our  Judge."  Not 
only  is  this  certain,  but  more  than  this  ;  the  very  day 
upon  which  the  great  assize  shall  be  held  is  itself  immu- 
tably fixed.  "  God  hath  appointed  a  day  in  which  he 
will  judge  the  world,"  says  my  text;  it  is  not  left  to 
chance  or  circumstance  to  determine  that  day,  but  it  is 


THE  JUDGMENT.  J  g£ 

even  now  as  irrevocably  appointed  as  that  day  of  which 
you  have  this  morning  heard,  which  was  foretold  four 
hundred  and  thirty  years  before,  and  yet  on  the  "  self- 
same day  all  the  hosts  of  the  Lord  went  out  from  the 
land  of  Egypt."  So  is  it  with  us,  our  great  day  is  ap- 
pointed. Every  month  that  passes  over  us,  every  sun 
that  rises,  but  hastens  on  that  day  of  doom.  It  is  one 
week  nearer  to  every  individual  among  us,  than  when 
he  last  listened  to  our  Sabbath  bells.  And  yet,  with  all 
this  certainty,  nothing  is  so  sure  to  us  as  its  uncertainty  : 
"  Of  that  day  and  that  hour  knoweth  no  man,  no,  not 
the  angels  that  are  in  heaven,"  for  "  the  day  of  the  Lord 
so  cometh  as  a  thief  in  the  night." 

All  things  will  continue  as  they  were  from  the  creation, 
until  the  very  moment  when  that  last  coming  of  the  Son 
of  man  shall  burst  upon  an  astonished  world.  The  sun 
will  rise  that  morning  as  bright  as  he  has  ever  risen,  not 
knowing  that  his  work  is  done,  his  labours  over ;  "  re- 
joicing as  a  giant  to  run  his  course,"  but  ignorant  that 
that  course  is  finished,  his  agency  no  longer  necessary, 
his  light  no  longer  needed ;  that  he  will,  ere  that  day's 
lengthened  shadows  have  gone  down,  be  stopped  in  mid 
career,  and  laid  aside  for  ever;  the  moon  and  stars,  with 
their  ten  thousand  splendours,  will  each  quietly  and 
calmly  die  out  upon  the  morning  of  that  solemn  day,  as 
they  have  done  to-day,  but  never  again  to  be  rekindled. 
"Man  will  go  forth  to  his  work  and  to  his  labour  until 
the  evening,"  expecting  to  return  again  at  that  evening 
hour  as  usual  to  his  assembled  family,  but  that  evening 
hour  will  never  come;  it  will  be  a  day  which  no  evening 
and  no  night  shall  terminate ;  a  day  which  shall  never 
end ;  a  day  begun  in  time  and  not  to  be  concluded  in 
eternity.  Myriads  of  mortal  eyes  shall  see  its  opening — 
not  one  shall  look  upon  its  close.  For  on  that  day  the 

16 


182  THE  JUDGMENT. 

bright  advancing  sign  of  the  Son  of  man  shall  be  seen  in 
the  heavens ;  that  splendour  before  which  the  light  of 
the  mid-day  sun  shall  fade  away,  and  all  its  glories  be 
eclipsed.  Then  shall  the  trumpet  of  the  archangel  call 
forth  the  dead  from  the  sleep  in  which  they  have  so  long 
been  buried;  and  earth  and  sea  will  give  up  their  in- 
habitants, and  every  grave  will  open,  and  living  forms 
shall  be  seen  rising  from  those  dark  chambers  which  are 
now  beneath  us  and  around  us,  and  the  teeming  earth 
repeopled,  as  in  a  moment,  by  ail  the  generations  who 
have  lived  and  died  upon  its  surface,  with  their  progeni- 
tor Adam  at  their  head.  The  vast  population  of  the  se- 
pulchre, even  now  outnumbering  all  who  live,  shall  then 
present  themselves ;  for  the  great  white  throne  shall  de- 
scend, and  the  voice  of  Him  who  sits  upon  that  throne 
shall  be  heard  throughout  all  space,  and  they  who  hear 
shall  live.  Nothing  shall  hasten,  nothing  shall  hinder, 
nothing  shall  procrastinate  that  day  one  hour  beyond  the 
time  which  God  has  fixed,  for  it  is  he  who  has  appointed 
it  before  the  foundations  of  the  world  were  laid.  Brethren, 
do  you  doubt  that  such  a  day  as  this  is  thus  immutably 
fixed  ?  I  own  I  have  no  excuse ;  I  believe  it  as  firmly, 
I  am  convinced  of  it  as  surely  as  of  my  own  existence  at 
this  hour.  But  if  you  have  one  doubt  upon  this  subject, 
did  you  never  sit  down  quietly  and  take  up  your  Bible 
and  say,  ( I  will  carefully  examine  this  messenger  from 
God  ;  I  will  see  whether  the  coming  of  this  great  day  be 
so  certain  as  priests  and  preachers  would  fain  make  it ; 
and  if  I  find  it  so,  I  will  never  rest  again  until  I  am  at 
least  in  earnest  in  my  preparation  for  its  approach?" 
Have  you  never  acted  thus  with  even  common  wisdom 
and  common  prudence?  then  may  God  grant  that  you 
may  begin  to-day,  that  you  may  ascertain  this  great  point 
to  your  own  conviction,  and  having  found,  as  you  will 


THE  JUDGMENT.  183 

i 

find  it  written  as  with  a  sunbeam  throughout  the  revealed 
Word  of  God,  may  it  by  God's  grace  lead  you  to  the 
next  inquiry,  What  part  shall  I  bear  in  those  great  so- 
lemnities? 

There  is  a  day  coming  for  which  I  am  utterly  unpre- 
pared ;  I  have  sins  to  confess  on  that  day  for  which  I 
know  no  remedy ;  they  are  past,  they  are  recorded  in  the 
book  of  God's  remembrance ;  I  cannot  reach  that  book 
to  tear  from  thence  the  pages  which  record  my  shame ; 
repentance  itself  cannot  avail  for  this.  How  shall  I  meet 
that  coming  day?  If  there  be  one  soul  among  you 
brought  to  this  point  at  this  moment,  how  gladly  would 
we  reply,  and  how  earnestly  would  we  pray  that  the 
Spirit  of  God  might  impress  the  reply  upon  your  heart, 
"  The  blood  of  Jesus  Christ  cleanseth  from  all  sin." 
Yes  !  will  avail,  to  blot  out  every  sin  that  God  hath  writ- 
ten against  you,  if  only  you  seek  it  with  a  true  and  living 
faith.  It  is  a  little  sentence,  but  O  the  mysteries  in  that 
little  sentence  !  Of  all  the  myriads  who  will  stand  be- 
fore the  judgment-seat,  there  will  be  peace  in  no  single 
heart  in  which  that  little  sentence  has  not  brought  it ! 
"  The  blood  of  Jesus  Christ  cleanseth  from  all  sin." 

We  proceed,  secondly,  to  consider  the  manner  in  which, 
including  one  marked  peculiarity,  the  judgment  of  that 
day  will  be  conducted. 

"  The  Lord  himself  shall  descend  from  heaven  with  a 
shout,  with  the  voice  of  the  archangel  and  with  the  trump 
of  God  ;"  "  before  him  shall  be  gathered  all  nations,  and 
all  that  are  in  the  graves  shall  hear  his  voice  and  shall 
come  forth.  And  the  dead,  both  small  and  great,  shall 
stand  before  God,  and  the  books  shall  be  opened,  and 
the  dead  shall  be  judged  out  of  those  things  which  are 
written  in  the  books,  according  to  their  works." 

But,  brethren,  let  us  not  satisfy  ourselves  with  this 


THE  JUDGMENT. 

I 

merely  general  view  of  a  scene  in  which  each  shall  bear 
his  own  immediate  and  individual  part.  It  will,  by 
God's  grace,  be  profitable  to  endeavour  to  realize,  as  far 
as  flesh  and  blood  can  realize,  our  own  doings  and  our 
own  feelings  on  that  coming  day. 

Conceive  the  prison-house  of  the  grave  shattered  to  its 
very  foundation  by  the  piercing  cry  of  the  archangel ; 
personal  identity  again  restored,  the  long-lost  body  re- 
united to  its  imperishable  inmate ;  all  this  the  act,  the 
miracle  of  a  moment,  and  ere  that  moment  has  elapsed, 
finding  yourself  traversing  the  unbounded  fields  of  space, 
and  standing  alone,  as  regards  human  help,  or  coun- 
tenance, or  support,  standing,  even  in  the  midst  of  that 
countless  multitude,  quite  alone  in  the  presence  of  the 
Judge.  A  memory  at  that  hour  supernaturally  bestowed 
upon  you,  from  which  no  single  act,  or  word,  or  thought 
of  the  longest  life  will  be  excluded ;  for  our  Lord  has 
said,  even  "  every  idle  word  that  men  shall  speak,  they 
shall  give  account  thereof  in  the  day  of  judgment;" 
therefore  all  shall  be  remembered,  all  rehearsed,  all  pro- 
claimed! Actions  which  you  would  not  have  performed 
in  the  presence  of  a  child,  thoughts  for  which  you  would 
have  blushed  to  have  found  utterance  before  your  dearest 
friends,  all  published  then ;  no  mysteries  and  no  secrets 
shall  outlive  that  day. 

But  the  great  and  marked  peculiarity  of  the  judgment 
to  which  I  have  referred,  because  it  is  so  strongly  pre- 
dicated in  the  text,  remains  yet  untold,  God  shall  "judge 
in  righteousness."  How  solemn  a  thought!  It  will  be 
pre-eminently  a  day  of  righteous  judgment,  not  a  day  of 
forbearing  mercy !  It  will  be  a  day  of  strict  and  unerring 
justice,  in  which,  wonderful  as  it  may  appear,  mercy 
will  form  no  ingredient.  Nay !  be  not  surprised  at  this, 
do  not  misunderstand  me,  it  cannot  be  otherwise ;  for, 


THE  JUDGMENT. 

you  will  acknowledge,  God  will  condemn  every  impeni- 
tent sinner,  this  will  be  strict  justice;  God  will  pardon 
every  penitent  believer  who  has  fled  for  refuge  to  the 
blood  of  Jesus,  and  this  also  will  be  strict  justice,  as  strict 
and  as  undeviating  as  the  former.  Our  Church  declares 
the  same  truth  when  she  says,  in  the  words  of  St.  John, 
"  God  is  righteous  and  just  to  forgive  us  our  sins,  and  to 
cleanse  us  from  all  unrighteousness."  Only  one  attri- 
bute of  God,  therefore,  is  recorded  in  the  text,  as  to  be 
exercised  at  this  great  tribunal ;  it  is  simply,  "  He  will 
judge  in  righteousness."  Let,  then,  those  among  you 
who  believe  in  the  coming  of  this  great  day,  and  yet  are 
content  to  trust  to  some  undefined  notions  of  God's 
mercy  out  of  Christ  for  your  safety  and  your  pardon, 
think  well  of  the  assurance  before  you.  You  shall  stand 
before  a  perfectly  righteous  Judge.  There  shall  be  no 
favour,  as  there  shall  be  no  injustice  there.  You  shall 
state  your  own  cause  and  be  your  own  accuser.  You 
shall  give  an  account,  not  of  the  merely  exterior  history 
of  your  life,  but  of  the  most  secret  recesses  of  your  heart, 
a  heart,  the  hidden  iniquities  and  deep  deceits  of  which 
we  shall  never,  ourselves,  thoroughly  know  till  then. 
You  shall  proclaim  before  enemies  who  have  hated  you, 
and  the  friends  who  have  loved  you,  those  acts,  if  such 
there  are,  which  you  have  here,  by  every  artifice,  con- 
cealed from  their  eyes.  Nor  will  these  form  a  thousandth 
part  of  the  confessions  of  that  day.  To  all  outward 
actions  will  be  added  the  untold  and  unnumbered  ini- 
quities which  burn  within  :  the  defiled  and  vicious  inten- 
tion ;  the  unkind,  uncharitable  temper;  the  overreaching 
and  avaricious  desire ;  the  mean  and  secret  jealousy ;  the 
dark  and  malignant  insinuation ;  the  sensual  and  carnal 
inclination,  all  fondly  cherished,  though  deeply  veiled  at 
16* 


THE  JUDGMENT. 

present,  all  then  to  be  proclaimed  aloud  before  assembled 
worlds. 

But  the  fearful  catalogue  is  not  yet  closed,  sins  of 
omission,  in  thick  and  terrible  array,  are  crowding  on  upon 
the  newly-awakened,  the  supernaturally  strengthened 
memory.  Duties  left  undone — through  years  and  years 
of  warnings,  carelessly  forgotten,  and  when  recollected 
brushed  hastily  aside,  or  angrily  discarded — will  all  be 
most  vividly  remembered  then.  Opportunities  of  good, 
of  usefulness  or  kindness  to  others,  occurring  every  day, 
and  every  day  postponed  or  evaded.  Prayer  to  God, 
absolutely  neglected,  or,  throughout  a  whole  life,  coldly, 
formally,  perfunctorily  performed.  The  Word  of  God  ! 
an  unknown,  unread,  uncared-for  history,  left  to  moulder 
on  the  dusty  shelf  with  other  books,  whose  day  and 
fashion  have  long  since  passed  away.  The  Sabbaths  of 
God !  O  how  will  the  voice  of  broken  Sabbaths  cry  on 
that  day  against  those  who  are  now  paying  only  a  con- 
strained and  half  obedience  to  them,  or  with  a  still  higher 
hand  and  a  more  rebel  heart,  openly  violating  them  by 
their  week-day  occupations,  or  profaning  them  by  their 
pleasures.  The  Sacraments  of  God  !  to  which  all  are  so 
constantly  summoned,  where  all  may  "find  grace  to 
help  in  time  of  need,"  and  from  which,  I  grieve  to  say, 
so  very  many  still  turn  neglectfully  away.  The  Son 
of  God !  O  if  there  were  no  sins  of  omission  here,  all 
might  yet  be  well,  for  he  has  a  balm  for  every  wound, 
a  remedy  for  every  guiltiness  of  the  sinner's  soul;  he 
who  deserves  all,  and  more  than  all,  that  you  can  render 
of  love  and  gratitude  and  unqualified  obedience,  robbed 
of  his  honour,  shorn  of  his  glory,  the  merit  due  to  him 
and  him  alone,  attributed  to  yourselves  and  your  per- 
formances, while  in  your  affections  and  hearts,  the  Son 


THE  JUDGMENT. 


of  God  is  subordinated  to  every  trifling  but  engrossing 
pleasure,  to  every  worldly  business,  and,  in  some  in- 
stances we  fear,  to  every  debasing  lust. 

But  we  are,  lastly,  to  consider  the  person  by  whom 
this  righteous  judgment  shall  be  conducted.  "  God  hath 
appointed  a  day  in  the  which  he  will  judge  the  world  in 
righteousness,  by  that  man  whom  he  hath  ordained." 
With  such  a  context,  how  cheering  to  the  penitent  sin- 
ner's heart  is  this  appellation;  the  apostle  does  not  say, 
by  that  Lord  ;  by  that  Almighty  Ruler,  by  that  everlast- 
ing Father,  by  that  omnipotent  God,  but  by  "  that 
man  ;"  to  remind  us  that  he  who  shall  come  to  be  our 
Judge,  was  once  a  man,  a  feeble,  weak,  and  suffering 
mortal  like  ourselves,  that  he  died  upon  the  cross,  that 
he  lay  within  the  sepulchre,  that  he  experienced  once 
all  our  infirmities,  and  has  not  forgotten  them  to  this 
hour;  nay,  will  not  have  forgotten  them  on  that  day 
when  you  and  I  shall  stand  before  his  judgment-seat. 
He  then,  who  now  beseeches  you,  by  us,  week  after 
week,  and  Sunday  after  Sunday,  to  come  to  him  for 
faith  and  repentance  and  pardon,  to  take  his  yoke  upon 
you,  and  learn  of  him,  that  you  may  find  rest  for  your 
souls;  this  is  "that  man,"  who  is  coming  to  be  your 
Judge.  My  brethren,  you  who  are  Christians  in  heart 
as  well  as  name,  you  will  feel  at  this  moment  the  full 
meaning  of  that  declaration  of  the  apostle,  when,  after 
giving  one  of  the  most  appalling  accounts  of  the  coming 
of  our  Lord  to  judgment  which  the  book  of  God  con- 
tains, he  concludes  with  "  Wherefore,  comfort  ye  one 
another  with  these  words."  Yes,  the  declaration  that 
Christ  shall  be  our  Judge,  is  one  to  the  Christian,  ex- 
clusively of  comfort,  of  the  most  soul  -satisfy  ing,  the  most 
unbounded  comfort;  for  were  we  told  that  such  a  day 
must  be,  that  such  a  tribunal  must  be  erected,  but  that 


THE  JUDGMENT. 

we  might  select,  from  all  the  children  of  Eve,  our  own 
judge,  who  should  try  us  individually^  and  compelled 
to  judge  in  righteousness,  should  proclaim  our  everlast- 
ing sentence;  I  believe  were  this  choice  given  to  every 
soul  among  us  at  this  moment,  that  but  one  cry  would 
ascend  to  God  from  the  lips  of  every  true  believer  in  the 
congregation,  and  that  cry  would  be,  Let  me  be  judged 
by  none  but  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  So  certain  does 
every  Christian  feel  that  there  is  no  love,  no  compassion, 
no  mercy  equal  to  the  love  and  compassion  and  mercy 
of  the  Saviour.  "  Wherefore  comfort  ye  one  another 
with  these  words." 

But  while  I  thus  speak,  I  dare  not  think  that  all  can 
thus  derive  comfort;  that  all  can  be  pleased  to  hear  that, 
"that  man"  shall  be  their  Judge,  whom  some  are  openly 
neglecting  and  disobeying;  "that  man,"  whose  Gospel 
is  now  preaching  to  them,  but  they  hear  it  not;  whose 
atoning  merits  are  now  freely  offered  them,  but  they 
accept  them  not;  whose  righteousness  might  now  be 
made  their  own,  but  they  desire  it  not.  It  can  be  no 
comfort  to  those,  brethren,  that  the  day  is  fixed,  that  the 
judgment  shall  be  righteous,  and  that  Christ  shall  be 
the  Judge.  No,  I  see  no  comfort  for  you  in  the  re- 
flection, except  it  be  this;  that  although  the  day  is  ap- 
pointed, it  has  not  yet  arrived;  that  although  the  Judge 
is  determined,  he  has  not  yet  ascended  the  tribunal,  that 
he  is  still  waiting  to  be  gracious,  still  employed  in 
interceding  for  those  whom  he  must  shortly  try,  still 
willing,  at  the  prayer  of  faith,  to  bestow  every  Christian 
grace,  which  on  that  day  he  will  expect  to  find.  But, 
"the  time  is  short,  the  fashion  of  this  world  passeth 
away,"  and  that  which  I  now  revert  to  as  a  source  of 
comfort,  may  ere  to-morrow's  dawn  be  the  bitterest  in- 
gredient in  your  cup  of  recollection,  for  it  may  only  rank 


THE  JUDGMENT. 

among  those  blessed  opportunities  in  which  faith  and  re- 
pentance, and  Christ  and  happiness,  might  all  have  been 
your  own,  but  which  have  passed  away  for  ever.  For 
how  impressive  is  the  thought,  that  even  while  we  yet 
speak,  the  Judge  is  waiting  for  the  appointed  hour; 
watching  the  dial  as  the  shadow  is  creeping  slowly  round 
it ;  listening  till  the  last  chime  on  earth  has  struck,  that 
he  may  issue  the  command  to  the  angel  of  the  Revela- 
tion who  shall  swear,  "  There  shall  be  time  no  longer." 
Then  shall  all,  and  infinitely  more  than  all,  that  we  at 
present  know  be  realized.  Then  shall  "  that  man," 
who  this  day*  "  broke  the  bands  of  death,"  going  down 
into  death's  own  dominions,  and  rifling  his  very  strong- 
hold in  the  grave,  then  shall  he  set  his  foot  for  ever  on 
that  serpent's  head,  and  take  unto  himself  the  everlasting 
victory.  Beloved  brethren,  what  a  comfort  will  it  be  at 
that  hour  for  us  poor  worms  of  earth  to  claim  kindred 
with  the  Conqueror,  affinity  with  the  Judge,  to  call  to 
mind  the  day  when  he  was  made  "  One  with  us,  and  we 
with  him ;"  to  remember  those  blessed  seasons  when  his 
written  Word,  his  sanctifying  Spirit,  his  felt  presence, 
were  among  our  happiest  hours  on  earth,  to  recollect  the 
days  when  we  met  together  in  his  house  of  prayer,  and 
united  together  in  his  praises,  and  assembled  together 
round  his  table,  and  were  partakers  of  the  blessed  sym- 
bols, and  fed  by  faith  on  him,  who  appointed  them,  and 
shed  the  tear  of  penitence,  or  rejoiced  in  the  concious- 
ness  of  hrs  pardoning  love.  O  what  a  host  of  blessed 
recollections  shall  on  that  day  fill  the  souls  of  God's 
people !  But  will  there  be  no  alloy  ?  Our  sins  !  The 
Judge  himself  has  said,  "  Their  sins  and  their  iniquities, 
will  I  remember  no  more ;"  and  we,  at  that  hour,  may 

*  Preached  on  Easter-Sunday. 


THE  JUDGMENT. 

well  forget  what  Christ  refuses  to  rememoer.  Will  there 
then  be  no  drawback  to  our  joy,  while  standing  before 
the  tribunal  of  God,  our  Saviour,  Judge,  and  Friend? 
Yes,  surely,  there  will  be  one  recollection,  which 
nothing  but  an  entrance  within  the  everlasting  mansions 
shall  be  able  entirely  to  overcome ;  the  thought  that  we 
served  the  Lord  Jesus  so  little,  preached  him  so  imper- 
fectly, obeyed  him  so  reluctantly,  and  loved  him  so 
coldly,  while  on  earth. 

The  Lord  pardon  us  for  this  our  sin,  and  accept  us  in 
this  our  duty,  and  remove  from  us,  by  his  cleansing  blood 
and  sanctifying  Spirit,  before  we  go  hence,  and  are  no 
more  seen,  all  that  is  unholy, ungrateful, and  unforgiven, 
for  his  dear  Name's  sake. 

PRAYER. 

O  holy  and  eternal  Jesus,  who  hast  overcome  death, 
and  triumphed  over  all  the  powers  of  hell,  darkness,  and 
the  grave ;  manifesting  the  truth  of  thy  divinity,  the 
majesty  of  thy  person,  and  the  rewards  of  thy  glory,  pre- 
serve our  souls  from  eternal  death ;  make  us  to  rise  from 
the  death  of  sin,  and  to  live  the  life  of  grace  established 
in  faith,  joyful  through  hope,  and  rooted  in  charity,  that 
when  thou  shalt  reveal  thyself  on  thy  great  and  coming 
day,  we  may  be  enabled  to  say,  I  am  thine,  O  Lord 
Jesus,  and  thou  art"  mine.  O  dwell  with  us,  and  let  us 
dwell  with  thee,  adoring  and  praising  the  eternal  glories 
of  God  the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost,  for  ever. 


THE  END. 


DISCOURSES 


ON  SOME  OF   THE 


DOCTRINAL   ARTICLES 


OP  THE 


CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND. 


REV.  HENRY  BLUNT,  A.  M., 

RECTOR    OF  STREATHAM,  SURREY; 


X.APE  FELLOW  OF  PEMBROKE  COLLEGE,  CAMBRIDGE;    AND  CHAPLAIN  TO 
HIS  GRACE  THE  DUKE  OF  RICHMOND. 


THIRD  AMERICAN,  FROM  THE  LAST  LONDON  EDITION. 


PHILADELPHIA  : 

PUBLISHED    BY   II.    IIO.'OKER, 

S.  W.  CORNER  CIIESNUT  &  EIGHTH  STS. 

1854. 


PREFACE. 


IT  was  long  since  observed  by  an  eminent  author,  that 
he  lived  in  an  age  in  which  it  was  "  criminal  to  be  mo- 
derate." The  writer  of  the  following  pages  would  fain 
believe  that  his  lot  has  been  cast  in  an  age  when  the 
virtue  of  moderation  is  beginning  to  be  more  justly  ap- 
preciated ;  when  there  is,  among  the  members  of  the 
church  of  England  at  least,  an  increasing  desire  to  merge 
their  common  differences,  and  to  draw  more  closely  to- 
gether, in  the  defense,  and  in  the  practice,  of  their  com- 
mon Christianity.  While,  therefore,  he  feels  the  greatest 
diffidence,  in  venturing  to  publish  upon  such  a  subject 
as  that  of  the  present  work,  he  feels  also  the  greatest 
confidence,  that  the  attempt  will  be  received  in  the  same 
spirit  of  candour  and  moderation  with  which  he  trusts 
it  was  undertaken.  It  is  impossible,  in  treating  upon 
subjects  so  diverse,  and  so  difficult,  as  those  embraced 
by  the  Articles  of  our  church,  not,  in  some  instances  at 
least,  to  cross  the  prejudices,  and  to  contravene  the  opi- 
nions, probably  of  all  his  readers.  When  this  is  the  case, 
the  author  hopes  that  he  shall  be  found  speaking  with  the 
modesty  which  becomes  him,  and  never  expecting  the 
acquiescence  of  the  reader,  one  syllable  beyond  the 
point,  to  which  he  is  accompanied,  by  the  plain  and 
undeniable  statements  of  the  Word  of  God. 

So  far  as  the  author  knows  himself,  he  believes,  that 


IV  PREFACE. 

he  is  not  entrammelled  by  any  human  system,  but  that 
he  has  endeavoured  to  bear  in  mind  continually  that  in- 
junction of  our  church,  that,  "  No  man  shall  either  print 
or  preach  to  draw  the  Article  aside  any  way,  but  shall 
submit  to  it  in  the  plain,  and  full  meaning  thereof,  and 
shall  not  put  his  own  sense,  or  comment,  to  be  the  mean- 
ing of  the  Article,  but  shall  take  it  in  the  literal  and  gram- 
matical sense."*  That  this  has  been  his  constant  endea- 
vour he  is  certain ;  that  he  has  never  failed  in  fulfilling  it, 
he  will  not  say ;  but  of  this  he  is  sure,  that,  should  it 
appear  to  others,  that  he  has  been  mistaken,  he  will  care- 
fully reconsider  any  disputable  point,  and  without  hesi- 
tation retract  what  he  has  here  advanced,  if  convinced 
that  he  has,  however  undesignedly,  put  a  false  gloss  upon 
the  Article,  or  substituted  "  his  own  sense  or  comment," 
for  the  opinion  of  the  church. 

After  having  for  years  most  cordially  and  unreservedly 
received  the  Articles  of  the  church  of  England  as  entirely 
agreeable  to  the  inspired  Word  of  God,  the  author  has 
risen  from  his  deliberate  review  of  them,  with  his  mind 
more  deeply  than  ever  impressed  by  the  piety  and  saga- 
city of  the  holy  men  who  compiled  them,  and  with  his 
heart  more  than  ever  filled  with  gratitude  to  God  that 
his  lot  has  been  cast  in  the  church  to  which  he  belongs. 
Of  this  church,  he  feels  convinced  that  the  highest  orna- 
ment and  the  strongest  bulwark  are  to  be  found,  not  in 
the  rank,  and  learning,  and  holiness  of  her  prelates,  not 
in  the  activity  and  piety  of  her  clergy,  not  in  the  devot- 
edness  of  the  great  body  of  her  true  disciples  to  her  best 
and  spiritual  interests,  but  in  the  fact,  that  every  great 
and  vital  truth  of  the  Word  of  God,  is  embodied  in  her 

*  Rubric  prefixed  to  the  Articles, 


PREFACE.  V 

unequalled  Liturgy,  and  her  invaluable  Articles,  which 
continue  from  generation  to  generation,  instrumentally, 
to  lead  her  children  into  the  paths  of  peace,  and  to  educate 
them  for  the  many  mansions  of  their  Father's  house. 

While  these  remain  essentially  unaltered,  we  need  en- 
tertain no  fears  for  the  safety  of  our  church;  there  is  a 
vitality  in  them  which,  in  times  gone  by,  has  enabled 
her  to  survive  when  oppressed  by  the  heaviest  of  all 
burdens,  even  the  deadness  of  her  own  nominal  follow- 
ers ;  and  there  is  a  buoyancy  in  them,  which,  in  times 
to  come,  will  cause  her  ark  to  float  upon  the  waters  of 
that  moral  deluge,  that  may  even  now  be  gathering 
round  her,  but  which  will  only  lift  her  the  higher  above 
the  rocks  and  quicksands  of  earth,  and  raise  her  the 
nearer  to  the  heaven  to  which  she  points. 

In  the  arrangement  of  the  work  the  writer  has  at- 
tempted to  unite  the  most  simple  explanatory  statements 
with  the  most  direct  appeals  to  the  conscience,  and  to 
the  heart.  Where  he  has  differed  from  the  acknow- 
ledged authorities,  upon  any  of  the  subjects  of  which  he 
treats,  he  has  generally  contented  himself  with  giving 
the  scriptural  arguments  for  the  difference.  It  would 
not  have  been  difficult  to  have  corroborated  most  of  his 
statements  by  the  declarations  of  the  early  Reformers, 
especially  Luther  and  Melancthon,  and  that  truly  great, 
and  much  misrepresented  man,  Archbishop  Cranmer; 
but  this  would  have  been  to  have  changed  the  character 
of  the  work,  and  to  have  thrown  an  air  of  pretension 
over  that  which  the  writer  only  desired  to  make  plain, 
perspicuous  and  useful.  It  will  be  seen,  that  the  author 
does  not  consider  that  the  Articles  are  grounded  upon 
the  doctrines  which  are  strictly  Calvinistic;  i.  e.,  such 
doctrines  as  were  held  by  Calvin,  but  rejected  by  the 


PRE  FACE. 


other  great  lights  of  the  blessed  Reformation.  Rather 
he  is  of  opinion  that  they  are  chiefly  founded  upon  the 
views  which  the  immortal  Luther,  guided  by  the  Spirit 
of  God,  was  led  to  take  of  all  the  most  important  doc- 
trines of  the  Divine  Word ;  although,  at  the  same  time, 
he  fully  agrees  with  Bishop  Tomline,  that  the  Articles 
of  the  church  of  England,  are  neither  Lutheran,  nor 
Calvinistic,  nor  Arminian, — but  Scriptural.  .  9 

It  was  to  the  younger  members  of  this  congregation  that 
the  author  particularly  addressed  these  discourses ;  and 
it  is  to  the  young  that  he  more  especially  reverts' while 
committing  them  to  the  press.  His  earnest  prayer  is, 
that  his  feeble  effort  may  be  blessed  to  the  benefit  of  that 
class  of  his  readers  by  proving  effectual,  through  Divine 
grace,  to  "  strengthen,  establish,  settle"  them,  in  all  those 
great  and  vital  points,  which  concern  the  well-being  of 
their  souls  in  time  and  in  eternity,  and  by  making  them 
such  "  lively  members"  of  the  church  here  below,  that 
they  shall  finally,  not  be  excluded  from  "  the  Church  of 
the  First-born,  whose  names  are  written  in  heaven." 


CONTENTS. 


DOCTRINAL  ARTICLES. 


DISCOURSE  I. 

On  «  Article  IX.  Original,  or  Birth  Sin" 9 

DISCOURSE  II. 

On  «  Article  X.    Of  Free  Will" 21 

DISCOURSE  III. 

On  "  Article  XI  Of  the  Justification  of  Man" 34 

DISCOURSE  IV. 

On  «  Article  XII.  Of  Good  Works."—"  Article  XIII.  Of  Works 
before  Justification." — "  Article  XIV.  Of  Works  of  Supereroga- 
tion"   48 

DISCOURSE  V. 

On  «  Article  XV.  Of  Christ  alone  without  Sin." — «  Article  XVI. 
Of  Sin  after  Baptism." — •«  Article  XVIII.  Of  obtaining  Eternal 
Salvation  only  by  the  name  of  Christ" 60 

DISCOURSE  VI. 

On  «  Article  XVII.  Of  Predestination  and  Election"      .     .    '.     .     .73 

(vii.) 


Vlll  CONTENTS. 

DISCOURSE  VII. 

On  <«  Article  XXVII.  Of  Baptism.       .         89 

DISCOURSE  VIII 

On  "Article  XXVIII.  Of  the  Lord's  Supper" 101 

DISCOURSE  IX. 

On  the  duty  of  every  Christian  government  to  provide  Christian 
Instruction,  and  to  maintain  Christian  Worship" 114 


DISCOURSES. 


DISCOURSE  I. 

PSALM  li.  5. 
Behold  I  was  shapen  in  iniquity,  and  in  sin  did  my  mother  conceive  me. 

AT  the  present  moment,  when  the  prospects  of  the  church 
of  England  form  the  subject  of  conversation  among  many, 
.  and  of  deep  and  earnest  thoughtfulness  and  prayer  with  not  a 
few,  everything  belonging  to  her  acquires  an  additional  inte- 
rest, and  comes  home  to  the  hearts  of  her  true  members  with 
peculiar  force. 

It  would  seem,  therefore,  to  be  the  duty  of  her  ministers 
to  improve  this  opportunity,  and  to  endeavour,  while  men  are 
contending  for  her  externals — which,  important  though  they 
be,  will  bear  no  comparison  with  her  inward  and  spiritual 
well-being — to  lead  their  people  to  a  better  acquaintance  with, 
and  a  deeper  interest  in,  her  truly  apostolical  constitution  and 
her  accurately  scriptural  formularies.  It  is  indeed  painful  to 
think  how  few,  comparatively,  even  among  the  members  of 
our  church,  are  intimately  acquainted  with  those  invaluable 
documents,  those  bulwarks  of  our  faith,  the  Articles  and  Ho- 
milies. So  unquestionable  is  this  ignorance,  that  nothing  is 
more  common  than  to  hear  men  who  are  nominally  her 
members,  actually  deny  in  conversation  some  of  those  great 
truths  which  the  holiest  of  her  confessors  and  martyrs  sealed 
with  their  blood;  which  she  has  herself  distinctly  asserted, 
and  even  laid  as  the  foundation  upon  which  all  her  superstruc- 
ture of  services  and  offices  is  built;  and,  moreover,  which 

(9) 


10  DISCOURSE    I. 

are  among  the  most  prominent,  most  influential,  most  essen- 
tial to  the  salvation  of  the  soul  of  the  sinner,  of  any  that  are 
to  be  found  in  the  revelation  of  God. 

Having,  then,  an  earnest  desire  that  none  should  content 
themselves  with  a  nominal  or  an  ignorant  adherence  to  a 
church,  of  which  it  may  be  truly  said,  that  the  better  it  is 
understood,  the  more  deeply  does  it  intrench  itself  in  the 
judgment  and  in  the  hearts  of  its  members;  and  having  a 
still  stronger  anxiety,  that  of  the  souls  committed  to  our 
charge  none  should  be  "  destroyed  for  lack  of  knowledge,"* 
I  purpose  bringing  before  you  in  succession  some  of  the  most 
important  doctrinal  Articles  of  our  church ;  believing  that, 
although  to  many  these  discourses  may,  and  I  fear  must  be, 
extremely  deficient  in  the  interest  which  other  subjects  might 
supply,  and  that  to  some  they  will  be  a  mere  recapitulation 
of  well-known  truths,  they  may  be  made,  especially  to  the 
younger  and  inquiring  members  of  our  congregation,  the 
means,  under  God,  of  informing,  strengthening,  establishing, 
settling  them  in  "  the  things  belonging  to  their  peace,"  and 
of  enabling  them  to  be  "  ready  always  to  give  an  answer 
to  every  man  that  asketh  them  a  reason  of  the  hope  that  is  in 
them."t 

Before  we  speak  upon  the  subject  of  that  particular  Article 
which  we  have  selected  for  this  morning's  consideration,  it 
may  be  well,  very  shortly,  to  mention  the  origin  of  this  por- 
tion of  the  formularies  of  our  church. 

At  the  time  of  the  blessed  reformation,  the  different 
churches  which  separated  themselves  from  qommunion  with 
the  church  of  Rome,  deemed  it  advisable  to  publish  confes- 
sions of  their  faith.  Accordingly,  Edward  the  Sixth  pub- 
lished, by  his  royal  authority,  forty-two  Articles,  "  agreed 
upon,"  as  it  is  stated,  "  By  the  Bishops  and  other  learned 
and  good  men  in  the  Convocation  held  at  London,  in  the 
year  1552,  to  root  out  the  discord  of  opinions,  and  establish 

*  Hosea  iv.  6.  t  1  Peter  iii.  15. 


A  R  T  I  C  L  E    1  X.  11 

the  agreement  of  true  religion."  These  Articles  were  repealed 
by  Queen  Mary,  hut  Queen  Elizabeth,  in  the  beginning  of  her 
reign,  established  the  present  Thirty-nine  Articles,  which 
were  founded  upon  the  original  forty-two  Articles,  from  which 
they  do  not  greatly  or  essentially  differ.  Cranmer  and  Rid- 
ley* are  believed  to  have  been  the  chief  framers  of  the  original 
Articles,  and  it  is  certainly  not  too  much  to  assert,  that,  for  a 
deep  and  thorough  knowledge  of  Scripture,  an  intimate  ac- 
quaintance with  the  opinions  and  tenets  of  the  early  Chris- 
tians, and,  above  all,  for  the  moderation  and  caution,  the 
charity  and  perspicuity  which  pervade  them,  they  will  bear 
comparison  with  any  uninspired  writings  which  have  ever 
yet  been  given  to  the  world. 

Having  been  led  by  the  services  of  the  two  preceding  Sun- 
days, to  consider  those  great  truths,  the  personality  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  and  the  existence  and  offices  of  the  ever-blessed 
Trinity,  it  does  not  appear  necessary  to  recapitulate  what  has 
been  already  brought  before  you  ;  we  shall,  therefore,  com- 
mence our  observations  by  an  examination  of  the  Ninth 
Article  of  our  church,  which  treats  expressly  upon 

"  Original  or  Birth  Sin." 

"  Original  sin,"  says  the  Article,  "standeth  not  in  the  fol- 
lowing of  Adam,  (as  the  Pelagians  do  vainly  talk,)  but  it  is 
the  fault  and  corruption  of  the  nature  of  every  man  that  natu- 
rally is  engendered  of  the  offspring  of  Adam."  By  the 
phrase,  "  naturally  engendered  of  the  offspring  of  Adam,"  the 
Article  intends  to  make  an  implied  exception  with  regard  to 
our  blessed  Lord  and  Saviour,  Jesus  Christ,  he  being  super- 
naturally  engendered ;  and,  as  all  Scripture  clearly  shows, 
being  "  holy,  harmless,  underiled,"  and  therefore  as  entirely 

*  "  Ridley. — I  grant  that  I  saw  the  book,  but  I  deny  that  I  wrote  it.  I 
perused  it  after  it  was  made,  and  I  noted  many  things  for  it.  So  I  con- 
sented to  the  book  .  I  was  not  the  author  of  it.  These  Articles  were  set 
out,  I  both  willing  and  consenting  to  them." — Ridley's  Examination  in, 

fox's  Martyrs,  p.  1317. 


12  DISCOURSE!. 

free  from  original  corruption,  as  he  was  from  all  taint  of,  and 
liability  to,  actual  sin. 

The  Pelagians  were  the  followers  of  Pelagius,  who  lived 
at  the  end  of  the  fourth,  and  the  former  part  of  the  fifth  cen- ' 
tury,  and  was  a  native  of  Wales.  "  His  real  name  was 
Morgan,  which  in  the  Welsh  language  signifies  the  same  as 
Pelagius  in  Greek."  "  He  denied  original  sin,  and  the  ne- 
cessity of  grace,  and  asserted  that  men  might  arrive  at  a  state 
of  impeccability  in  this  life."  Our  Article  then  states,  in 
opposition  to  the  opinion  of  this  man  and  his  followers,  that 
we  are  not  merely  guilty  before  God,  because  we  imitate  the 
example  of  Adam,  but  because,  as  the  offspring  of  Adam,  we 
are  actually  born  into  the  world,  the  inheritors  of  a  fallen  and 
corrupt  nature.  That  there  is  corruption  in  us  before  any 
outward  circumstances  could  have  tended  to  make  us  corrupt. 
So  that,  were  we  exposed  to  no  evil  example,  were  there 
nothing  of  external  temptation  to  lead  us  astray,  we  should 
still  possess  this  innate  "  fault  and  corruption."  This  assertion 
is  grounded  especially  upon  this  passage  of  Holy  Writ,  among 
many  others,  "Nevertheless,  death  reigned  from  Adam  to 
Moses,  even  over  them  that  had  not  sinned  after  the  simili- 
tude of  Adam's  transgression."  When  the  Apostle  speaks 
of  death  reigning  over  them  that  had  not  so  sinned,  he  evi- 
dently speaks  of  infants,  those  who  died  at  too  early  an  age 
to  have  had  any  opportunity  of  imitating  their  first  parent, 
and  therefore  whose  sin  could  not  stand  in  the  following  of 
Adam.  And  his  argument  is  this, — "  Death  passed  upon  all 
men,  for  that  all  have  sinned,"*  or  because  all  have  sinned  ; 
sin,  therefore,  is  the  cause  of  death  ;  but  death  has  also  passed 
upon  infants,  who  are  unable  actually  to  commit  sin,  the^- 
fore,  even  in  infants,  there  is  this  original  fault  "  and  corrup- 
tion," or  they  would  not  fall  victims  to  that  which  is  declared 
in  Scripture  to  be  the  punishment  of  sin. 

This,  then,  sufficiently  establishes    the   assertion  of  the 

*  Rom.  v.  12. 


ARTICLE    IX.  13 

Article,  without  dwelling  upon  those  well-known  texts, "  Who 
can  bring  a  clean  thing  out  of  an  unclean."*  "  Behold,  I  was 
shapen  in  iniquity,  and  in  sin  did  my  mother  conceive  me."t 
"  We  were  by  nature  the  children  of  wrath,  even  as  others. "J 

Nothing,  then,  can  be  more  distinctly  demonstrated  from 
Scripture,  than  the  existence  of  this  "  Original  or  Birth  Sin," 
a  doctrine  which  has  met  with  more  opposition  than  almost 
any  other  of  the  vital  truths  of  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ. 

We  proceed  to  the  next  clause  of  the  Article  before  us, 
which  states  the  effects  of  this  original  malady  of  our  fallen 
nature,  "  Whereby  man  is  very  far  gone  from  original  right- 
eousness, and  is  of  his  own  nature  inclined  to  evil,  so  that 
the  flesh  lusteth  always  contrary  to  the  spirit,  and,  therefore, 
in  every  person  born  into  this  world,  it  deserveth  God's  wrath 
and  damnation."  We  will  not,  in  a  discourse  which  is  in- 
tended simply  to  instruct  those  who  are  seeking  scriptural 
instruction  for  the  purpose  of  its  great  and  blessed  practical 
results,  viz.,  that  it  may  be  a  "  light  to  their  feet,  and  a  lantern 
to  their  paths,"§  occupy  your  time  by  adverting  to  the  inter- 
minable controversies  which  have  arisen  upon  the  first  phrase 
of  this  paragraph,  "  Very  far  gone  from  original  righteous- 
ness;" it  is  enough  merely  to  mention  that,  while  some  di- 
vines contend  that  all  which  is  intended  to  be  implied  by 
these  words  is,  that  there  is  a  natural  tendency  to  evil,"  or  a 
strong  "  evil  bias11  in  our  nature ;  others,  taking  the  terms 
of  the  Latin  Article,||  to  explain  the  English,  interpret  it, 
"  altogether  removed  from  original  righteousness,"  and  as  re- 
gards the  things  of  God,  entirely  alienated  from  them.  Hap- 
pily, however,  neither  the  Word  of  God,  nor  the  word  of  the 


*  Job  xiv.  4.  t  Psalm  ii.  5. 

t  Eph.  ii.  3.  Upon  this  last  passage,  Melancthon  says,  "  Children  of 
•wrath  is  a  Hebrew  phrase  ;  it  signifies  guilty  or  condemned,  not  only  for 
their  actual  offences,  but  for  that  corruption  of  nature  which  we  bring  with 
us  into  the  world,  not  contract  from  example." — Mela?icthonJ s  Common 
Places,  quoted  by  Scott,  Contin.  Milner,  vol.  ii.  p.  223.* 

$  Psalm  cxix.  105.  I!  Quam  longissime  distet. 

2 


14  DISCOURSE    I. 

church,  has  left  so  important  a  doctrine  to  be  determined  by 
a  single  phrase.  This  is  the  language  of  the  Bible  : 

"  Every  imagination  of  the  thoughts  of  his  heart  is  only 
evil  continually."*  "  The  heart  is  deceitful  above  all  things, 
and  desperately  wicked;  who  can  know  it?"t  "There  is 
none  that  understandeth,  there  is  none  that  seeketh  after 
God."f  "  They  are  all  gone  out  of  the  way  ;  they  are  to- 
gether become  unprofitable ;  there  is  none  that  doeth  good, 
no,  not  one."§ 

The  language  of  our  church  is,  as  might  reasonably  have 
been  expected,  most  fully  and  entirely  in  accordance  with  the 
revealed  word  of  our  God. 

Hear,  for  instance,  the  following  extract  from  tbe  Homily 
for  Whit-sunday :  "  Man,  of  his  own  nature,  is  fleshly  and 
carnal,  corrupt  and  naughty,  sinful  and  disobedient  to  God, 
without  any  spark  of  goodness  in  him,  without  any  virtuous 
or  godly  motion,  only  given  to  evil  thoughts  and  wicked 
deeds. "||  Again,  from  the  second  Homily  on  "  the  misery 
of  man,"  after  quoting  those  passages  of  Scripture  which  re- 
cord our  fallen  and  corrupt  state,  it  adds,  "  Thus  we  have 
heard  how  evil  we  be  of  ourselves,  how  of  ourselves,  and  by 
ourselves,  we  have  no  goodness,  help,  or  salvation,  but  contra- 
riwise, sin,  damnation,  and  death  everlasting."**  "  We  have 
heard  how  that  of  ourselves,  and  by  ourselves,  we  are  not 
able  either  to  think  a  good  thought,  or  work  a  good  deed,  so 
that  we  find  in  ourselves  no  hope  of  salvation,  but  rather 
whatsoever  maketh  unto  our  destruction. "tt  Again,  from  the 
Homily,  "  on  the  nativity  of  our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ."JJ  By 
the  fall  of  Adam,  "  it  came  to  pass,  that  as  before  he  was 
blessed,  so  now  he  was  accursed  ;  as  before  he  was  loved,  so 
now  he  was  abhorred ;  as  before  he  was  most  beautiful  and 
precious,  so  now  he  was  most  vile  and  wretched  in  the  sight 

*  Gen.  vi.  5.  t  Jer.  xvii.  9.  t  Rom.  iii.  11. 

$  Rom.  iii.  12.  II  Page  390,  edit.  1802.  **  Page  14. 

tt  Page  15.  \\  Page  338. 


A  R  T  I  C  L  E    I  X.  15 

of  his  Lord  and  his  Maker;  instead  of  the  image  of  God, 
he  was  now  become  the  image  of  the  devil ;  instead  of  the 
citizen  of  heaven,  he  was  become  the  bond-slave  of  hell, 
having  in  himself  no  one  part  of  his  former  purity  and  clean- 
ness, but  being  altogether  spotted  and  defiled  ;  insomuch  that 
now  lie  seemed  to  be  nothing  else  but  a  lump  of  sin,  and 
therefore  by  the  just  judgment  of  God  was  condemned  to 
everlasting  death."  It  is  unnecessary,  after  these  extracts 
from  our  accredited  formularies,  to  say  which  of  the  two  in- 
terpretations of  "  very  far  gone  from  original  righteousness," 
appears  to  possess  the  authority  of  the  church.  But  we  have 
not  yet  concluded  the  Article.  It  continues  thus,  "  and  this 
infection  of  nature  doth  remain,  yea,  in  them  that  are  regene- 
rated, whereby  the  lust  of  the  flesh,  called  in  Greek,  <j>£o^a 
fia^xos,  which  some  do  expound  the  wisdom,  some  sensuality, 
some  the  affection,  some  the  desire  of  the  flesh,  is  not  subject 
to  the  law  of  God.  And  though  there  is  no  condemnation  for 
them  that  believe  and  are  baptized,  yet  the  Apostle  doth  con- 
fess, that  concupiscence  and  lust  hath  of  itself  the  nature  of 
sin." 

Here  the  article  distinctly  marks  the  fact,  that  even  in  the 
regenerate,  notwithstanding  their  change  of  heart,  and  a  re- 
newal of  nature,  and  pardon  of  transgression,  there  is  still 
"  this  infection"  remaining,  so  that  they  are  never,  while  in 
this  world,  perfectly  subjected  to  the  law  of  God,  but  are 
continually  exposed,  throughout  the  whole  of  their  Christian 
course,  to  the  attacks  of  sensuality,  and  the  desires  of  the 
flesh.  How  entirely  the  view  taken,  in  the  clause  we  are 
considering,  of  this  infection  of  our  nature  remaining  in  the 
regenerate,  is  conformable  to  the  Word  of  God,  will  imme- 
diately appear  from  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  where  St. 
Paul  declares,  speaking,  as  we  most  fully  believe,  of  his  own 
Christian  experience  after  he  had  become  regenerate,  "The 
good  that  I  would,  I  do  not ;  but  the  evil  which  I  would  not, 
that  I  do."  "  For  I  delight  in  the  law  of  God  after  the  in- 
ward man ;  but  I  see  another  law  in  my  members,  warring 


16  DISCOURSE    I. 

against  the  law  of  my  mind,  and  bringing  me  into  captivity 
to  the  law  of  sin  which  is  in  my  members."* 

Surely  nothing  can  more  clearly  illustrate  the  "  infection 
of  our  nature,"  which  the  Article  says,  "  doth  remain  in  them 
that  are  regenerated,"  than  these  admissions  of  St.  Paul.  If, 
however,  there  be  any  who  do  not  believe  that  the  Apostle, 
in  these  verses,  really  spoke  of  himself,  after  his  conversion, 
we  would  refer  them  to  the  fifth  chapter  of  Galations,  where 
they  will  find  the  same  truths  as  unequivocally  stated  in  a 
passage  which  no  commentator  has  ever  doubted  was  applied 
to  the  regenerate.  "  This  I  say  then,  Walk  in  the  Spirit,  and 
ye  shall  not  fulfil  the  lust  of  the  flesh.  For  the  flesh  lusteth 
against  the  Spirit,  and  the  Spirit  against  the  flesh  ;  and  these 
are  contrary  the  one  to  the  other,  so  that  ye  cannot"  (although 
true  converts,  and  therefore  undoubtedly  regenerated)  "do 
the  things  that  ye  would. "t  But  let  us  turn  to  the  most 
blessed  conclusion  of  this  humiliating  Article,  viz.,  that  al- 
though all  partake  of  this  original  sin,  although  all  retain  "  the 
infection"  of  it  throughout  life,  and  are  in  a  greater  or  less 
degree,  from  time  to  time,  drawn  aside  by  it  from  the  laws  of 
God,  and  from  the  paths  of  holiness,  and  though  these  very 
desires  which  thus  draw  them  have  "  the  nature  of  sin,"  yet 
that  "  there  is  no  condemnation  for  them  that  believe  and  are 
baptized." 

This  is  the  healing  that  came  upon  the  wings  of  the  second 
Adam,  for  the  great  and  deadly  wound  inflicted  upon  all  his 
posterity  by  the  first.  In  vain  did  Satan  hope  that  by  the 
ruin  of  our  great  federal  Head,  and  the  consequent  degrada- 
tion of  the  whole  species,  he  should  insure  the  destruction  of 
the  whole  ;  "  God  so  loved  the  world  that  he  gave  His  only- 
begotten  Son,  that  whosoever  believeth  in  Him  should  not 
perish,  but  have  everlasting  life.";):  Here  then  was  a  remedy, 
quite  coextensive  with  the  disease,  nay,  more  than  coexten- 
sive, for  has  not  the  unerring  Word  declared,  "  Where  sin 

*  Rom.  vii.  19,  22,  23.  t  Gal.  v.  16,  17.  t  John  iii.  16. 


ARTICLE    IX.  17 

abounded,  grace  did  much  more  abound  :  that  as  sin  hath 
reigned  unto  death,  even  so  might  grace  reign  through  right- 
eousness unto  eternal  life  by  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord."* 

The  result  then  of  the  whole  Article  is  this,  that  as  by 
the  sin  of  the  first  Adam  all  men  fell,  and  the  nature  of  all 
men  became  corrupt,  "  so  that  the  flesh  lusteth  always  con- 
trary to  the  Spirit ;  and  therefore  in  every  person  born  into 
this  world,  it  deserveth  God's  wrath  and  damnation  ;"  so 
through  the  atoning  sacrifice  of  the  second  Adam,  all  "  that 
believe  and  are  baptized,"  are  freed  from  condemnation,  and 
are  made  particulars  of  everlasting  life. 

And  now,  brethren,  were  we  to  conclude  here,  although 
perhaps  we  might  hope  that  we  had  explained  the  Article 
before  us,  and  shown  its  perfect  accordance  with  the  declara- 
tions of  Omnipotence ;  nay,  more,  though  we  might  venture 
to  trust  that  most  of  our  hearers  would  acquiesce  in  the  con- 
clusions at  which  we  have  arrived,  still  not  a  single  individual 
might  carry  away  from  this  house  of  prayer  a  deeper  convic- 
tion of  his  own  lost  and  ruined  state  by  nature,  and  of  his 
own  actual  sinfulness  and  unprofitableness.  Yet  this  is  the 
point,  which,  if  it  be  not  effected,  would  leave  all  our  decla- 
rations of  general  sinfulness  merely  "  as  sounding  brass  or  a 
tinkling  cymbal." 

How  difficult,  how  utterly  impossible  is  it  for  any  human 
teacher  to  produce  this  conviction  of  sin :  we  may  convince 
the  mind,  but  it  is  God  alone  who  can  convince  the  con- 
science and  really  reach  the  heart.  May  that  blessed  Being, 
even  God  the  Holy  Ghost,  whose  peculiar  prerogative  it  is 
thus  to  convince  of  sin,  send  home  this  day  the  arrow  of 
conviction  to  the  hearts  of  some  who  have  hitherto,  from 
very  carelessness  and  thoughtlessness,  escaped  all  personal 
application  of  this  most  humbling  doctrine. 

We  will  not  occupy  your  time  by  supposing  that  we  ad- 
dress gross  and  outward  sinners,  persons  living  in  the  corn- 
Rom,  v.  19,  20,  21. 
2* 


18  DISCOURSE    I. 

mission  of  profaneness,  of  impiety,  of  adultery,  of  fornica- 
tion, or  of  any  of  those  works  of  darkness,  which,  though 
hidden  from  the  eye  of  man,  are,  as  the  Word  of  God  assures 
us,  all  written  "in  the  light  of  God's  countenance,"  all  pre- 
pared against  that  great  and  coming  day,  when  men  shall  need 
no  other  accusers  than  these,  and  no  other  witnesses,  to  strike 
them  speechless,  and  to  testify  to  the  justice  of  their  con- 
demnation. To  such  it  is  unnecessary  to  speak :  we  would 
rather  address  ourselves  to  the  moral,  and  the  upright,  and 
the  amiable  ;  you  who  have  filled,  and  are  filling,  the  differ- 
ent relationships  of  life  in  the  most  irreproachable  and  unex- 
ceptionable manner,  and  its  duties  with  so  much  honour  and 
equity,  that  even  your  enemies,  if  you  have  any,  are  com- 
pelled, like  Pilate  of  old,  to  say,  "  I  find  no  fault  in  this 
man." 

It  is  to  you  especially  that  we  speak,  when  we  declare,  that 
all  which  we  have  this  day  advanced  of  the  sinfulness  and 
corruption  of  our  nature,  and  of  the  entire  absence  of  original 
righteousness,  applies  as  distinctly  and  as  completely  to  your- 
self, be  your  rank  and  station  what  they  may,  as  to  the 
guiltiest  and  the  most  abandoned  of  your  fellow-sinners.  All 
the  virtues  upon  which  you  pride  yourself  will  not,  in  any, 
the  slightest  degree,  avail  you,  as  proving  that  you  are  an 
exception  to  the  general  rule  of  a  fallen  nature,  a  corrupt  and 
sinful  heart,  a  mind  alienated  from  God  and  His  righteous- 
ness, which  is  the  lot  of  every  child  of  Adam.  Your  virtues 
may  exist;  we  do  not  in  the  least  desire  to  deny  it,  we  do 
not  wish  even  to  underrate  them ;  the  fall  of  Adam  did  not 
destroy  them,  it  left  much,  very  much  of  amiability,  and 
kindness,  and  honour,  and  integrity,  in  the  corrupt  and  guilty 
heart;  there  they  lie,  like  the  beautiful  fragments  of  some 
fair  column,  each  fair  and  lovely  in  itself,  yet  each  a  ruin, 
and  were  all  collected,  forming  but  a  ruin  still.  The  column 
which  was  shattered  to  atoms  by  the  fall  of  Adam,  was  the 
holiness  of  our  nature,  its  purity,  and  piety,  its  love  to  God, 
and  likeness  to  His  image,  and  conformity  to  His  will. 


ARTICLE    IX.  19 

These  in  the  natural  heart,  have  all  disappeared,  and  those 
moral  virtues,  of  kindness  to  your  friends,  and  affection  to 
your  family,  and  honour  and  integrity  to  all,  in  which  you 
are  rejoicing,  are  merely  like  the  leaves  of  the  capital  of  the 
column,  which  are  here  and  there  scattered  amidst  the  ruin 
of  the  mass,  undestroyed  indeed,  but,  as  regards  the  column 
in  its  present  state,  utterly  useless.  Put  them  all  together, 
and  you  could  not  re-erect  the  shattered  pillar,  no  not  one 
single  foot  of  it ;  all  that  you  could  gather  up  would  be  but 
these  mere  ornamental  appendages,  which,  detached  from  the 
shaft  on  which  they  grew,  are  as  worthless  as  they  are  fair 
and  frail.  To  convince  you  of  sin,  therefore,  we  would  not 
inquire  into  the  duties  of  the  second  table  of  God's  com- 
mands, easy  as  it  might,  perhaps,  be  to  convict  you  even 
there,  of  unworthy  motives,  amidst  your  proudest  virtues ; 
but  we  would  urge  you  to  try  yourself  by  the  duties  of  the 
first  table,  your  allegiance  to  God. 

God  demands  your  whole  heart ;  He  requires  truth  in  the 
inward  parts  ;  purity  in  the  imagination  and  thoughts.  How 
will  you  answer  when  tried  by  such  a  standard  ?  Are  there 
no  thoughts  admitted  into  your  hearts,  and  entertained  there, 
which  are  dishonourable  to  God,  injurious  to  your  neighbour, 
disgraceful  to  yourself?  Have  you  no  thought  there  which 
you  would  scruple  to  declare,  even  before  this  assembly  of 
sinners  like  yourself?  Would  you  have  no  objection  to 
repeat  aloud  before  all  here  present,  every  vain  and  foolish 
and  wicked  imagination  which  has  occupied  your  mind  since 
you  arose  this  morning,  or  even  since  you  entered  these 
doors  ?  How  much  more  need  you  then  to  be  ashamed 
before  a  perfectly  pure  and  holy  God.  Not  to  speak  of 
proud,  covetous,  vain,  ambitious,  wanton  thoughts,  how 
many  thoughts  of  unthankfulness  for  the  mercies  of  God,  of 
impatience  under  His  trials,  of  repinings  under  His  Provi- 
dences, of  disregard  and  forgetfulness  of  Himself.  Are  you 
free  from  these  things  ?  Does  a  single  day  ever  pass  over 
you  without,  we  will  not  say  one  such  sinful  imagination!,, 


20  DISCOURSE    I. 

but  without  many  such,  breaking  in  upon  you,  and  carrying 
you  away  captive  almost  before  you  are  sensible  of  their 
attack.  If  this  be  the  case,  and  if  you  have  lived  twenty, 
thirty,  or  forty  years  in  this  world  of  sin,  who  can  tell  the 
length  of  that  dark  scroll  written  within  and  without,  with 
guilty  thoughts,  unprofitable  words,  and  unholy  actions, 
which  no  eye  but  God's  has  seen,  and  no  hand  but  His  has- 
registered  ? 

Again,  God  commands  that  "  all  men  should  honour  the 
Son  even  as  they  honour  the  Father.''*  Have  you  through 
life  fulfilled  this  great  and  obvious  duty  ?  Have  you  loved 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  with  all  your  heart,  and  mind,  and 
soul,  and  strength  ?  Have  you  dwelt  upon  the  great  things 
He  has  done  and  suffered  for  you,  till  your  soul  has  been 
filled  with  the  deepest  gratitude,  and  your  heart  with  the  most 
obedient,  self-denying  love?  Have  you  hated,  and  endea- 
voured to  renounce,  all  sin,  remembering  what  it  cost  this 
adorable  Saviour  to  redeem  your  souls  ?  Alas  !  who  can  come 
forth  acquitted — who  can  pass  unscathed  through  such  an 
ordeal  ?  Who  will  not,  if  he  know  his  heart,  be  obliged  to 
eonfess,  "  Here,  O  my  God,  I  stand  utterly  condemned  ;  I 
have  no  word  to  speak,  no  cause  to  show  why  judgment 
should  not  be  passed  on  me."  What  is  the  result,  then,  at 
which  we  arrive  ?  Is  it  not  this,  that  were  there  no  scriptural 
foundation  for  the  truths  of  which  we  have  this  day  spoken  ; 
were  the  whole  doctrine  of  "  original,  or  birth  sin,"  blotted 
from  the  Bible,  our  case  at  least,  as  sinners  before  God,  would 
not  be  in  any,  the  slightest  degree,  improved  or  altered  by  it ; 
there  would  still  remain  sufficient,  fully  sufficient  in  the  lives 
and  in  the  hearts,  even  of  the  best  among  us,  to  sink  us  to 
perdition.  How  strange  then  is  it,  that  men  deny  this  doc- 
trine, and  dispute,  and  cavil,  and  contest  it,  as  if,  could  they 
once  get  rid  of  this,  they  should  stand  acquitted  before  God ; 
while,  if  they  knew  their  own  hearts,  they  would  admit  that 

John  v.  23. 


ARTICLE     X.  21 

of  all  those  wretched  beings  who  have  now  commenced  an 
eternity  of  wo,  there  is  not  an  individual  who  has  not  merited 
and  obtained  his  sad  pre-eminence  in  misery,  by  his  own 
neglect  of  the  Saviour,  his  own  continuance  in  sin,  his  own 
apostasy  from  God. 

May  the  review  of  these  great  truths  send  each  of  us  to  his 
own  heart  in  serious,  earnest  self-examination : — Am  I  a  sin- 
ner by  nature  and  by  practice  ?  Am  I  convinced,  with  the 
Apostle  of  old,  that  "  in  me,  that  is,  in  my  flesh,  dwelleth  no 
good  thing  ;"*  and  do  I  in  consequence  "  abhor  myself,  and 
repent  in  dust  and  ashes  ?"t 

Be  assured,  brethren,  there  is  not  one  soul  among  us  who 
can  answer  these  inquiries  as  the  Word  of  God  would  have 
us  answer  them,  who  shall  not,  in  God's  good  time,  if  he  ap- 
proach Him  through  the  blood  of  His  dear  Son,  if  he  seek 
repentance  and  pardon,  as  His  gifts,  through  the  atoning 
merits  and  everliving  intercession  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
shortly  hear  those  blessed  words,  "  I,  even  I,  am  he  that 
blotteth  out  thy  transgressions  for  mine  own  sake,  and  will 
not  remember  thy  sins. "if 


DISCOURSE  II. 

JOHN  vi.  44. 

No  man  can  come  (o  me,  except  the  Father  which  hath  sent  me  draw 
him. 

THE  tenth  Article  of  our  church,  to  which  we  are  to  apply 
ourselves  this  morning,  is,  perhaps,  among  the  most  difficult 
that  we  shall  meet  with  throughout  the  whole  of  the  inquiry 
in  which  we  are  engaged.  Let  us  then  approach  it  in  a  spirit 
of  true  humility,  not  expecting  to  find  that  subject  plain  and 


Rom.  vii.  13.  t  Job  xlii.  6.  t  tsa.  xliii.  25. 


22  DISCOURSE    1 1. 

simple  which  godly  men  in  all  ages  have  found  obscure  and 
difficult,  but  contented  if  we  can  discern  the  language  of  our 
God  in  the  words  of  our  church,  and  if  we  can,  by  the  aid 
of  the  Spirit  of  wisdom  and  truth,  deduce  some  useful  practi- 
cal lessons  from  a  subject,  upon  which  too  many  are  satisfied 
to  reason,  and  to  speculate,  and  to  dogmatize,  until  all  spiritual 
benefit  is  frittered  away,  and  the  mind  itself,  fatigued  and 
harassed,  "  in  wandering  mazes  lost,"  finds  no  rest  for  the 
sole  of  its  weary  foot.  This  is  the  language  of  the  tenth 
Article — 

Of  Free  Will 

1  The  condition  of  man  after  the  fall  of  Adam  is  such,  that 
he  cannon  turn  and  prepare  himself,  by  his  own  natural 
strength  and  good  works,  to  faith  and  calling  upon  God." 

You  will  observe  how  naturally  and  incontrovertibly  this 
declaration  grows  out  of  the  preceding  Article.  In  that 
Article,  our  church  has  pronounced  her  opinion  in  favour  of 
the  corruption  and  alienation  from  God  of  "  the  nature  of 
every  man  that  naturally  is  engendered  of  the  offspring  of 
Adam."  Believing,  then,  his  corruption  to  be  thus  complete, 
it  follows,  as  a  matter  of  undisputable  truth  that  he  can  have 
no  inclination  or  will,  and  consequently  no  power  to  turn 
and  prepare  himself  to  faith  and  calling  upon  God  :  for,  if 
he  naturally  possessed  this  will,  if  he  had  by  nature  any,  the 
smallest  desire  after  God,  any,  the  smallest  inclination  to  be- 
lieve, to  obey,  and  to  call  upon  God,  then  by  so  much  his 
corruption  would  not  be  entire ;  as  regarded  at  least,  these 
duties  of  the  Christian  life,  he  would  not  be  at  all  "  gone  from 
original  righteousness." 

And  this  appears  to  be  nearly  all  that  our  church  intended 
to  assert  in  the  Article  before  us,  that  in  consequence  of  the 
fall  of  Adam,  his  corrupt  and  fallen  posterity  will  never  natu- 
rally choose,  and  therefore  can  never  naturally  perform  that 
which  is  spiritually  good  before  God. 

There  is,  therefore,  the  most  perfect  consistency  between 


ARTICLE     X.  23 

the  statements  of  the  preceding  Article  and  of  the  present. 
The  former  represents  man  as  shapen  in  iniquity,  and  con^ 
ceived  in  sin  ;  the  latter  represents  him  as  unable,  in  conse- 
quence of  the  fall  of  Adam,  "  by  his  own  natural  strength," 
to  emerge  from  this  state  of  guilt  and  pollution. 

That  the  church  maintains  the  same  opinion  in  all  her  formu- 
laries, may  be  seen  by  a  very  brief  reference  to  her  Homi- 
lies and  Liturgy,  which  are  entirely  pervaded  by  the  doctrine 
of  the  Article  before  us.  Take  for  example  the  following 
extract  from  the  first  Homily  on  Repentance : — "  So  must 
we  beware  and  take  heed,  that  we  do  in  no  wise  think  in 
our  hearts,  imagine,  or  believe,  that  we  are  able  to  repent 
aright,  or  to  turn  effectually  unto  the  Lord,  by  our  own  might 
and  strength.  For  this  must  be  verified  in  all,  «  without  me 
ye  can  do  nothing.'*  Again,  *  Of  ourselves  we  are  not  able 
so  much  as  to  think  a  good  thought.'  And  in  another  place, 
*  It  is  God  that  worketh  in  us  both  the  will  and  the  deed.'t 
For  this  cause,  although  Jeremiah  had  said  before,  *  If  thou 
return,  O  Israel,  return  unto  rne,  saith  the  Lord  :'  yet  after- 
wards he  saith,  « Turn  thou  me,  O  Lord,  and  I  shall  be 
turned.'  "f  The  same  truth  will  be  found,  expressed  with 
equal  clearness,  in  the  Homily  on  "  The  Misery  of  all  Man- 
kind." In  the  second  Homily  on  "  The  Passion,"  in  the 
third  part  of  the  "  Homily  for  Rogation  Week,"  to  all  of 
which  I  would  rather  refer  you  than  quote  from  them,  in  the 
hope  that  such  a  reference  may  induce  some  among  you,  not 
only  to  read  but  attentively  to  search  those  valuable  docu- 
ments,  which,  however  obsolete  in  their  phraseology,  well 
deserve  to  occupy  the  next  place  to  the  Word  of  God  itself 
in  the  heart  of  every  inquiring  member  of  the  church  of 
England. 

If  from  the  Homilies  we  pass  to  the  Liturgy,  we  shall  find 
the  same  doctrine  equally  prevalent.  At  one  time  we  de- 
clare our  solemn  conviction  to  Almighty  God  that,""  Through 

*  John  xv.  5.  t  Phil.  ii.  13.  \  8  vo.  Oxford,  p.  455. 


24  DISCOURSE     1 1. 

the  weakness  of  our  mortal  nature,  we  can  do  no  good  thing 
without"*  Him.  At  another,  we  beseech  him,  that  as  by  his 
"special  grace  preventing  us,  He  does  put  into  our  minds 
good  desires,  so  by  his  continual  help  we  may  bring  the  same 
to  good  effect."!  And  at  all  times,  and  in  all  our  services, 
we  speak  the  language  of  those  who  feel  in  their  hearts  that 
they  "  have  no  power  of  themselves  to  help  themselves,";): 
and  therefore  continually  beseech  of  God  to  "  incline"  their 
hearts  to  serve  Him,  and  to  keep  his  law. 

It  would,  however,  be  saying  little  to  assert  that  the  church 
were  consistent  with  herself,  if  we  could  not  also  show  that 
she  were  equally  consistent  with  the  revealed  Word  of  God. 

Perhaps  the  language  of  my  text  alone  would  sufficiently 
bear  us  out  in  the  assertion,  "  No  man  can  come  to  me,  ex- 
cept the  Father  who  hath  sent  me  draw  him,"  but  the  Old 
Testament  and  the  New  are  equally  full  and  unambiguous 
upon  this  important  point.  If,  for  instance,  in  the  Prophets, 
Ephraim  bemoan  himself,  this  is  his  language,  "  Surely  after 
that  I  was  turned,  I  repented  ;"§  and  again,  "  Turn  thou  me, 
and  I  shall  be  turned. "||  If  David  ask  for  help,  it  is  with  a 
consciousness  of  weakness  which  seems  scarcely  able  to  find 
expressions  sufficiently  strong ;  thtts  he  prays  that  God 
would  "  open  his  eyes,"  and  "  quicken,"  and  "  strengthen," 
and  "enlarge"^  his  heart, — "create  in  him  a  clean  heart, 
and  renew  a  right  spirit  within  him."**  If  the  apostles  speak 
of  the  natural  man,  they  hesitate  not  to  describe  him  as  a 
corps,  from  which  all  will,  all  power,  all  strength,  with  respect 
to  spiritual  things,  yea,  even  life  itself  has  departed. 

Enough  then  has,  we  trust,  been  said,  to  show,  that  in  the 
Article  before  us,  our  church  is  consistent  with  truth,  with 
herself,  and  with  the  revealed  Word  of  her  God,  when  she 

*  Collect  for  the  First  Sunday  after  Trinity. 

t  Collect  for  Easter-day. 

t  Collect  for  the  Second  Sunday  in  Lent. 

$  Jer.  xxxi.  19.  II  JCT.  xxxi.  18. 

1  Ps.  cxix.  18,  25,  28,  32.  **  Ps.  li.  10,  il 


ARTICLE    X.  25 

says  that  "  after  the  fall  of  Adam  "  man  "  cannot  turn  and 
prepare  himself,  by  his  own  natural  strength  and  good  works, 
to  faith  and  calling  upon  God."* 

We  proceed  to  the  second  portion  of  the  Article.  "Where- 
fore we  have  no  power  to  do  good  works,  pleasant  and 
acceptable  to  God,  without  the  grace  of  God  by  Christ  pre- 
venting" (or  going  before)  "us,  that  we  may  have  a  good 
will,  and  working  with  us  when  we  have  that  good  will." 

In  the  ninth  Article,  as  you  will  recollect,  there  is  a  direct 
reference  made  to  the  Pelagians,  whose  opinion  it  was  espe- 
cially intended  to  controvert.  That  fact  forms  a  key  to  the 
intention  of  the  Articles  generally,  for  almost  all  of  them 
were  constructed  to  correct  some  error  which  had  at  one 
period  or  another  crept  into  the  church.  Thus  in  the  pas- 
sage of  the  tenth  Article  which  we  have  just  read,  there  are 
allusions  to  the  false  opinions  of  two  classes  of  heretics,  the 
Pelagians  and  the  semi-Pelagians. 

"  The  Pelagian  thought  that  man  was  so  entire  in  his 
liberty  that  there  was  no  need  of  any  other  grace  but  that  of 
pardon,  and  of  proposing  the  truths  of  religion  to  men's 
knowledge,  but  that  the  use  of  these  was  in*  every  man's 
power. "t  In  opposition  to  this,  the  Article  distinctly  declares, 
that  of  ourselves  "we  have  no  power"  to  avail  ourselves  of 
these  things,  even  if  they  were  proposed  to  us.  Again  the 
semi-Pelagians  asserted,  that  "  an  assisting  inward  grace  was 
necessary  to  enable  a  man  to  go  through  all  the  harder  steps 
of  religion ;  but  with  that  they  thought  that  the  first  turn,  or 


*  It  may  also  be  worthy  of  remark,  that  on  this  subject  our  church 
agrees  entirely  with  the  opinion  of  all  the  reformers,  as  expressed  in  the 
celebrated  "  Confession  of  Augsburgh,"  drawn  up  by  Luther  and  Me- 
lancthon  in  1530,  in  the  eighteenth  article  of  which  we  read,  that  "  The 
human  will  possesses  liberty  for  the  performance  of  civil  duties,"  or  the 
duties  between  man  and  man  in  civil  life,  and  to  choose  things  subject 
"or  submitted  to  reason ;  but  it  has  not  power  without  the  Holy  Spirit  to 
perform  spiritual  righteousness." — Scott1  s  Continuation  of  Milner,  p.  35. 

t  Bishop  Burnett  on  the  Articles,  p.  162,  8vo.  Oxford. 
3 


2(5  DISCOURSE    1 1. 

conversion  of  the  will  of  God,  was  the  effect  of  a  man's  own 
free  choice."*  In  opposition  to  this  unscriptural  statement, 
the  Article  not  only  declares  that  the  "grace  of  God,  by 
Christ"  must  work  with  us  when  we  have  a  good  will,  but 
that  it  must  go  before  us,  that  "  we  may  have  this  good  will." 

Towards  the  middle  of  the  last  century,  if  we  may  judge 
by  many  of  the  printed  discourses  which  we  meet  with,  there 
was  much  actual  Pelagianism  in  the  religion  of  the  Christian 
world,  but,  blessed  be  God,  since  the  return  to  the  doctrines 
of  the  Reformation  has,  by  His  grace,  been  rapidly  extending, 
this  error  has  almost  entirely  disappeared.  It  became,  in  fact, 
too  flagrant  for  the  improved  degree  of  Scriptural  light  abroad 
in  the  world,  and  Satan's  efforts,  therefore,  have  long  been, 
and  now  are,  employed  in  deluding  men  with  the  less  flagrant, 
but  scarcely  less  dangerous,  error  of  those  to  whom  the  con- 
clusions of  the  Article  so  incontrovertibly  replies,  viz.,  those 
who  think  they  need  assisting,  but  not  "  preventing"  grace. 

It  is  astonishing  to  find  how  many  there  are,  even  among 
the  members  of  the  church  of  England,  who,  perhaps  uncon- 
sciously, but  nevertheless  unquestionably,  hold  these  semi- 
Pelagian  doctrines.  Consider  for  a  moment,  whether  there 
may  not  be  some,  even  among  yourselves,  who  are  not  wholly 
freed  from  them.  You  have  no  hesitation  in  allowing  that 
the  grace  of  God  must  assist  a  man's  own  endeavours,  but 
you  would  not  as  readily  confess,  that  the  same  grace  must 
originate  them.  You  would  hesitate  to  avow  that  the  good 
work  must  be  begun  in  your  heart  by  some  external  power, 
that  God  must  first  change,  or  turn,  or  incline  the  heart,  be- 
fore it  can  believe,  or  love,  or  obey.  This  is  the  important 
link  in  the  chain  which  is  so  often  wanting,  and  without 
which  the  whole  chain  falls  broken  and  powerless  to  the 
ground.  For  remark  only  the  absolute  inconsistency  to  which 
it  drives  you.  You  acknowledge  the  truth  of  those  affecting 
views  of  human  depravity  and  corruption  of  heart,  which  the 

*  Bishop  Burnett  on  the  Articles,  p.  162,  8vo.  Oxford. 


ARTICLE    X.  27 

ninth  Article  asserts,  and  which  all  Scripture  has  affirmed. 
You  acknowledge  that  man  must  use  his  best  efforts,  and  his 
most  sincere  endeavours,  and  that  the  grace  of  God  must 
assist  him  in  carrying  them  on  to  perfection.  But  do  you 
see  no  chasm,  no  hiatus  here  ?  Where  are  these  best  en- 
deavours to  spring  from,  where  all  is  bad  ?  In  what  are 
these  holy  resolutions  to  take  their  rise,  where  all  is  unholy 
and  polluted  ?  Can  it  be  in  the  soil  of  the  natural  heart, 
which  the  Word  of  God  has  declared  to  be  "  only  evil  and 
that  continually,"  that  these  seedling  graces  are  indigenous  ? 
Can  it  be  amid  the  fruits  of  the  natural  heart,  the  whole  of 
which  our  Lord  has  emptied  out  before  us,  and  shown  them 
to  be  only  "  evil  thoughts,  murders,  adulteries,  fornications, 
thefts,  false  witness,  blasphemies,"  that  we  are  to  find  the 
blessed  fruits  of  righteousness,  and  godliness,  and  true  holi- 
ness, thickly  intermingled  ?  Can  they  grow  spontaneously 
in  such  a  worse  than  barren  soil,  or  thrive  amidst  such  noxious 
and  poisonous  companions  ?  Is  it  not  then  an  obvious  ab- 
surdity to  assert  that  if  the  grace  of  God  merely  co-operate 
with  our  honest  endeavours,  all  will  be  well.  Surely  far 
more  than  this  is  absolutely  indispensable  to  the  production 
of  a  single  fruit  of  holiness  and  true  righteousness.  And 
this  the  Article  distinctly  provides  for,  when  it  says  that  the 
work  must  begin  from  God  ;  when  it  asserts  that  the  grace 
of  God  must  first  give  us  the  "  good  will"  and  then  work 
with  us,  in  carrying  the  good  intentions  which  He  has  given 
us  into  effect.  So  perfectly  consistent  with  that  declaration 
of  Holy  Writ,  "  For  it  is  God  that  worketh  in  you  both  to 
will  and  to  do,  of  his  good  pleasure. 

It  is  most  important  that  you  should,  by  earnest  self-ex- 
amination, discover,  and  by  the  assistance  of  God's  good 
Spirit  abjure  this  error,  if  you  are  still  entangled  in  it.  Until 
this  has  been  effected,  you  can  never  participate  in  those 
lowly  views  of  yourself,  and  those  exalted  views  of  the  sove- 
reignty of  God,  without  which  true  spirituality  of  mind  can- 
not exist :  for  it  is  not  until  the  heart  is  fully  persuaded  of 


28  DISCOURSE     1 1. 

its  own  ruined  state  by  nature,  and  of  its  consequent  inability 
of  itself  to  repair  the  ruin,  that,  "  With  the  heart  man  be- 
lieveth  unto  righteousness,  and  with  the  mouth  confession  is 
made  unto  salvation."* 

There  is  no  doubt  that  the  great  and  general  opposition  to 
the  vital  truth  of  which  we  are  speaking  is  to  be  traced,  in 
the  first  instance,  to  the  pride  and  self-sufficiency  of  our  cor- 
rupt nature.  But  when  these  are  in  some  degree  diminished, 
there  is  often  to  be  found  a  strong  hostility  to  the  doctrine, 
in  many  minds,  arising  from  a  total  misapprehension  of  it. 
Let  us  then  endeavour  for  a  few  moments  to  apply  the  re- 
medy, of  at  least  a  clear  statement  of  the  difficulty,  which 
may,  by  God's  grace,  remove  any  mistaken  notions  upon  the 
subject,  and  prepare  the  mind  for  the  sincere  and  cordial 
reception  of  this  great  scriptural  truth. 

Yon,  then,  who  conscientiously  differ  from  your  church 
in  this  particular,  perhaps  are  led  to  do  so  by  the  following 
misapprehension  of  the  subject  under  consideration.  You  con- 
sider that  if  the  work  of  turning  and  "  preparing  ourselves  to 
faith  and  calling  upon  God"  must  thus  so  entirely  originate 
in  God,  then  man  becomes  a  mere  machine,  and  ceases  to  be 
either  a  free  agent  or  a  responsible  being.  This  arises,  per- 
haps, in  a  great  measure,  from  confounding  free  agency  with 
free  will.  If,  as  we  believe,  all  men  are  by  nature  in  a  state 
of  alienation  from  God,  and  if  the  power  of  escaping  from  this 
state  were  actually  denied  to  any,  then  there  would  be  to  some 
a  natural  impossibility  of  turning  to  God  $  they  would  not  be 
free  agents,  which  they  unquestionably  are,  or  they  could  not 
be  responsible :  but  if  the  means  of  so  turning  to  God  are 
offered  to  all,  and  if  the  stubbornness  and  the  corruption  of 
the  will  alone  prevent  them  from  accepting  the  means,  then 
there  is  not  a  natural  but  only  a  moral  impossibility,  and  this 
moral  impossibility,  instead  of  extenuating,  only  enhances 
their  guilt.  The  man  is  a  free  agent,  but  he  will  not  avail 

*  Romans  x.  10. 


ARTICLE    X.  29 

himself  of  the  power  which  is  offered  him  ;  as  our  Lord  said 
of  the  Jews,  "  Ye  will  not  come  to  me  that  ye  might  have 
life."*  Most  earnestly  would  we  desire  that  every  one  among 
you,  who  has  ever  felt  the  difficulty  of  this  great  truth,  would 
view  it  thus  ;  for  we  cannot  but  believe  that  much  of  the  op- 
position now  manifested  towards  the  doctrine  would  be  at  an 
end,  if  it  were  seen  thus  to  leave  the  free  agency  of  man, 
and  consequently  his  responsibility,  so  entirely  untouched. 
The  example  of  the  patriarch  Jacob  has  been  considered  as 
well  illustrating  this  difficult  subject.  What  led  him  at  the 
close  of  his  life,  to  go  down  into  Egypt  ?  Was  he  com- 
pelled to  go  thither  ?  Was  he  not  a  perfectly  free  agent  ?  Was 
he  not  as  free  to  remain  in  Canaan  after  the  famine  com- 
menced, as  before  I  How  was  it,  then,  that  at  his  advanced 
age,  he  should  have  undertaken  so  improbable  a  task,  so  toil- 
some a  journey  ?  Was  there  any  restraint,  any  compul- 
sion ?  Was  it  not  that  he  knew  that  his  beloved  son  Joseph 
was  there  ?  that  as  soon  as  he  heard  of  the  wagons  which 
his  son  had  sent  for  him,  his  heart  fainted  within  him  for 
joy  ?  Surely  this  was  no  restraint,  no  compulsion,  nothing 
was  done  against  his  will ;  his  will  itself  was  changed,  and 
instead  of  desiring  any  longer  to  remain  where  he  was,  all 
his  desire,  all  his  anxiety  now  was  to  go  to  his  beloved  and 
long-lost  son.  So  it  is  with  ourselves.  From  the  beginning 
to  the  end,  our  free  agency  is  left  untbuched,  our  responsibi- 
lity unimpaired.  When  God  bestows  the  will  to  turn  to 
him,  we  being  willing  in  the  day  of  his  power,t  are  as  anx- 
ous  to  turn  to  him,  as  we  have  ever  been  in  the  days  of  our 
stubbornness  and  darkness  to  turn  away.J 

*  John  v.  40.  t  See  Psalm  ex.  3. 

t  Perhaps  Luther,  in  his  celebrated  treatise  "  the  bondage  of  the  will," 
has  stated  this  most  difficult  subject  as  clearly  as  it  can  be  stated.  He 
says,  "In  fact  there  is  no  restraint  either  on  the  Divine  or  the  human 
will ;  in  both  cases  the  will  does  what  it  does,  whether  good  or  bad, 

simply,  and  as  at  liberty,  in  the  exercise  of  its  own  faculty A  man 

who  has  not  the  Spirit  of  God,  does  evil  willingly,  and  spontaneously. 
He  is  not  violently  impelled  against  his  will,  as  a  thief  is  to  the  gallows. 

3* 


30  DISCOURSE    II. 

In  conclusion,  we  would  briefly  endeavour  to  establish  the 
truth  of  this  great  doctrine  by  your  own  personal  experience. 
We  would  say,  then,  to  those  among  you  who  are  the  most 
disinclined  to  receive  the  important  fact,  that  man  cannot,  by 
his  own  natural  strength,  turn  to  God  ;  what  testimony  does 
your  own  heart  bear  to  its  truth,  or  to  its  falsehood  ? 

You  have,  from  time  to  time,  heard  the  blessed  truths  of 
the  Gospel  freely  and  fully  proposed  to  you  ;  you  have  been 
told  that  "  its  ways  are  ways  of  pleasantness,  and  all  its  paths 
are  peace;"*  you  have  been  directed  to  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  as  an  all-sufficient  Saviour,  and  at  the  same  time  as 
one  whose  "  yoke  is  easy,  and  his  burden  light  ;"t  you  have 
been  convinced  that  your  mortal  life,  when  weighed  in  the 
balance  against  the  eternity  which  is  awaiting  you,  is  com- 
paratively less  than  the  lightest  particle  of  dust  which  you 
can  cast  into  the  scale :  less  in  duration,  less  in  importance, 
less  in  every  thing  by  which  men  usually  value  the  objects 
of  their  desires.  We  say  you  are  perfectly  convinced  of  this, 
we  will  not  insult  your  understanding,  by  supposing,  even 
for  a  moment,  that  you  doubt  it.  Now  then,  let  us  inquire 
whether  these  acknowledged  truths  have  produced  that  in- 
fluence upon  your  hearts  and  lives,  which,  if  you  believe  them 
to  be  true,  every  individual  would  most  unhesitatingly  assume 
them  to  have  produced.  Are  you  at  this  moment,  living  to 
that  little  speck  of  time,  of  which  you  cannot  conceal  from 
yourself  your  utter  contempt,  or  to  that  eternity,  the  gran- 
deur and  the  dignity,  and  the  unutterable  importance  of 
which,  overpowers  your  contemplations  ?  in  other  words, 
are  you  making  God,  and  his  Christ,  and  his  heaven,  and  his 
"  great  salvation,"  the  first  objects  of  your  thoughts,  your 

....  Again,  when  the  Holy  Spirit  is  pleased  to  change  the  will  of  a  bad 
man,  the  new  man  still  acts  voluntarily  ;  he  is  not  compelled  by  the 
Spirit  to  determine  contrary  to  his  will,  but  his  will  itself  is  changed  ; 
and  he  cannot  now  do  otherwise  than  love  the  good,  as  before  he  loved 
the  evil."-— Milner,  vol.  ix.  p.  280,  j!81. 

*  Prov.  iii.  17.  t  Matt.  xi.  30. 


ARTICLE     X.  31 

motives,  your  actions,  your  life,  or  this  world,  and   its  con- 
temptible littleness  ? 

If  you  are  honest,  you  may  possibly  be  compelled  to  con- 
fess that,  notwithstanding  all  your  convictions,  your  hearts, 
your  thoughts,  your  life,  are  the  world's,  and  the  world's 
alone.  If  so,  can  you,  after  this,  attempt  to  impugn  the  doc- 
trine which  has  this  day  been  set  before  you,  that  man  "  can- 
not turn  and  prepare  himself  by  his  own  natural  strength,  to 
faith,  and  calling  upon  God?"  You  are  yourself,  yes,  every 
ungodly  man  is,  a  living  testimony  to  its  truth.  Upon  every 
other  subject  so  entirely  affecting  self,  your  own  peace,  your 
own  welfare,  your  own  happiness,  a  thousandth  part  of  the 
reasoning,  the  exhortation,  the  conviction  which  you  possess 
on  this,  would  have  been  sufficient,  and  more  than  sufficient, 
to  have  produced  a  distinct  and  striking  practical  result. 
Half  this  degree  of  conviction,  for  instance,  that  you  were 
heir  to  an  estate,  and  would  you  never  yet  have  sought  it? 
Half  this  degree  of  assurance,  that  your  house  was  in  flames, 
and  would  you  never  yet  have  stirred  one  step  to  escape  them  ? 
It  would  be  trifling  to  make  such  inquiries  seriously.  You 
know  that  you  would.  Then  why  has  no  real  result  been 
produced  by  your  convictions  with  regard  to  time  and  eter- 
nity ?  You  will  perhaps  attempt  to  evade  the  full  force  of 
the  reply  by  saying,  because  you  have  not  deemed  it  neces- 
sary ;  because  you  do  not  consider  that  such  a  change  of 
heart  and  life  are  really  needed  ;  because  you  have  always 
intended  to  effect  this  change,  at  some  future  time,  but  it  has 
not  been  your  pleasure  to  effect  now.  It  is  in  vain  to  answer 
thus ;  the  only  answer  which  would  on  any  other  subject 
satisfy  a  man  of  common  consideration,  is  that  with  which 
the  Word  of  God  has  furnished  us,  and  which  is  equally  irre- 
fragable upon  this,  viz.,  because  the  "  natural  man  receiveth  not 
the  things  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  for  they  are  foolishness  unto 
jiim,  neither  can  he  know  them,  because  they  are  spiritually 
discerned,"*  because,  therefore,  you  "  cannot  turn  and  prepare 

*  1  Cor.  ii.  14. 


32  DISCOURSE    1 1. 

yourself  by  your  own  natural  strength  and  good  works  to 
faith  and  calling  upon  God,"  and  you  have  never  either  de- 
sired or  sought  a  better  strength  than  your  own.  Here  is  the 
reason  that  in  spite  of  your  convictions,  you  are  at  this  mo- 
ment, all  that  you  have  ever  been;  a  believer  in  an  eternity, 
and  yet  devoted  to  the  follies  and  trifles  of  time ;  a  professed 
follower  of  God,  and  yet  living  six-sevenths  of  your  days  in 
an  almost  total  forgetfulness  of  Him  ;  the  possessor  of  a 
jewel  of  unutterable  value,  and  yet  your  thoughts,  and  desires 
all  centred,  and  settled,  upon  the  care  of  the  worthless  casket, 
in  which,  for  a  few  short  years,  it  is  contained. 

Do  not  imagine,  that  if  this  solution  be  the  true  one,  then 
may  you  sit  down  contentedly,  and  say,  "  I  am  not  turned 
to  God,  and  I  cannot  turn  myself  to  him  ;  therefore  at  least 
I  am  guiltless,  and  if  I  perish,  I  perish  at  an  unjust  tribunal." 
No,  brethren,  we  must  not  leave  you  with  a  feeling  so  false, 
and  so  derogatory  to  the  character  of  Him  with  whom  you 
have  to  do.  We  grant  that  you  are  not  turned  to  God,  and 
that  you  cannot  turn  yourself — that  you  cannot  be  turned,  as 
the  Article  says,  "  by  your  own  natural  strength."  Here, 
then,  is  the  solution  of  the  whole  matter.  You  have  con- 
tented yourself  with  striving,  if  you  have  striven  at  all,  in 
your  own  natural  "  strength,"  while  a  giant's  arm  is  upon 
you,  and  unseen  by  you,  holds  you  down  to  earth,  with  a 
power  which  laughs  your  feebleness  to  scorn.  You  have 
struggled  to  arise  from  your  thraldom,  and  shake  off  your 
enemy,  while  in  fact  you  are  utterly  unable,  even  to  turn 
yourself  beneath  his  grasp.  Let  us  then  suppose  that  now, 
for  the  first  time,  your  eyes  are  open  to  your  real  state, — 
and  what  are  you  to  do  ?  Be  not  dismayed  ;  look  fairly  at  this 
enemy  who  is  standing  over  you,  and  under  whose  bondage 
you  have  so  long  lingered ;  it  is  your  own  corrupt  will. 
Struggle  no  longer  then,  in  your  natural  strength,  in  the  un- 
equal conflict ;  it  is  enough  to  see  your  enemy — to  know  that 
by  you  he  must  for  ever  be  invincible  :  it  would  be  a  contra- 
diction in  terms,  to  say,  even  that  you  ever  willingly  or 


ARTICLE    X.  33 

heartily  opposed  him  ;  every  faculty  of  the  mind,  every  affec- 
tion of  the  heart,  is  a  disguised  traitor,  and  in  reality  in  league 
with  him.  If  you  are  in  earnest  in  your  opposition,  your 
course  is  plain,  and  the  victory  is  insured  to  you.  Gall  on 
the  strong  for  strength,  cease  from  your  own  unaided  efforts, 
cry  with  "  an  exceeding  great  and  bitter  cry,"  for  help  from 
the  sanctuary  and  strength  from  out  of  Zion  ;  cry  with  the 
heart-broken  consciousness  of  utter  helplessness  which  the 
Apostle  felt  when  he  cried,  "  O  wretched  man  that  I  am,  who 
shall  deliver  me  from  the  body  of  this  death  !"*  And  "  if 
the  Son  therefore  shall  make  you  free,  ye  shall  be  free  in- 
deed."! Be  assured,  this  is  no  doubtful  declaration,  for  has 
he  not  himself  declared,  "  If  ye  then,  being  evil,  know  how 
to  give  good  gifts  unto  your  children,  how  much  more  shall 
your  heavenly  Father  give  the  Holy  Spirit  to  them  that  ask 
him  !"J  Is  it  not  then  a  certainty,  as  much  as  the  existence 
or  the  love  of  God  himself  is  a  certainty,  that  there  never 
\vas,  and  that  there  shall  never  be,  an  instance  of  one  human 
being  who  shall  cry  in  sincerity,  "  Turn  thou  us,  O  good 
Lord,  and  so  shall  we  be  turned,"§  who  shall  not  experience 
the  power  of  his  God  exerted  in  his  behalf,  and  who  by  that 
invincible  power  shall  not  be  brought  into  the  glorious  liberty 
wherewith  Christ  makes  his  people  free.||  Yes,  brethren, 
be  but  earnest,  persevering  in  your  entreaties,  and  you  shall 
be  relieved  from  the  bondage  from  which  no  human  power 
can  liberate  you  ;  your  will  shall  still  be  free,  but  then,  free 
not  as  at  present,  to  serve  and  follow  sin,  but  free  to  love 
and  to  obey  God,  and  Jesus  Christ  whom  he  hath  sent;  free 
"  to  run  the  way  of  God's  commandments  ;"  free  to  choose 
those  commands  as  among  your  greatest  blessings  ;  free  to  "  de- 
light in  the  law  of  God  after  the  inward  man,"^  and  to  exclaim 
with  him  of  old,  respecting  all  that  now  appears  to  you  irksome 
and  burdensome,  and  even  hateful,  "  O  how  I  love  thy  law  !"** 

*  Rom.  vii.  24.  t  John  viii.  36.  t  Luke  xi.  13. 

§  Service  for  Ash- Wednesday.  II  See  Gal.  v.  1. 

IT  Rom   vii  22.  **  Ps.  cxix.  37. 


34  DISCOURSE     II  I. 

To  the  people  of  God  among  you,  time  will  only  allow 
me  to  speak  a  single  word ;  to  you  this  doctrine  is  a  blessed 
and  a  soul-encouraging  doctrine.  You  delight  in  referring  all 
to  God ;  you  love  to  acknowledge  that  he  alone  has  made 
you  to  differ  from  others,  and  to  return  all  the  praise  and  all 
the  glory  to  his  holy  name.  Bear  in  mind  only,  more  and 
more  continually,  the  purpose  for  which  he  first  worked  in 
you,  that  you  might  have  a  good  will,  and  now  works  with 
you,  since  you  have  this  good  will ;  it  was  that  you  might  be 
"  a  chosen  generation,*  a  royal  priesthood,  a  holy  nation," 
"  a  peculiar  people  zealous  of  good  works. "t  Fulfil,  then, 
by  God's  grace,  the  great  end  of  your  being ;  devote  all  you 
are,  and  all  you  have,  to  his  holy  and  happy  service,  "  Being 
confident  of  this  very  thing,  that  He  which  hath  begun  a 
good  work  in  you,  will  perform  it  until  the  day  of  Jesus 
Christ."J 


DISCOURSE   III. 

GALATIANS  ii.  part  of  ver.  16. 

We  have  believed  in  Jesus  Christ,  that  we  might  be  justified  by  the  faiih 
of  Christ,  and  not  by  the  works  of  the  law  :  for  by  the  works  of  the 
law  shall  no  flesh  be  justified. 

As  in  commencing  the  consideration  of  that  Article  of  our 
church  which  we  brought  before  you  on  Sunday  last,  we 
were  constrained  to  say  that  it  was  the  most  difficult  that 
would  come  under  our  notice,  so  we  must  say  of  that  which 
is  to  form  our  subject  to-day,  that  it  is  the  most  important, 
and  the  most  comfortable  of  all  the  Articles  propounded  by 
our  church.  It  is  the  most  important !  for  what  question 
can  for  a  moment  be  put  in  competition  with  the  inquiry, 
"  What  shall  I  do  to  be  saved  ?"  It  is  the  most  comfortable  !  for 

*Pet.  ii.  9  t  Titus  ii.  14.  t  Phil.  i.  6. 


ARTICLE    XI.  35 

what  answer  can  stand  an  instant's  comparison  with  the  reply, 
"  Believe  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  and  thou  shalt  be  saved." 
We  need  not  inform  you  that  this  inquiry  and  this  reply, 
are  embodied  in  the  Article  now  before  us. 

XL  Of  the  Justification  of  Man. 

Before  we  read  the  Article,  let  us  come  to  a  clear  and  dis- 
tinct understanding  of  the  subject  upon  which  it  treats.  What 
then  is  meant  by  "  the  justification  of  man  ?"  It  is  certainly 
not  merely  his  pardon,  for  the  idea  of  pardon  is  very  distinct 
from  and  very  inferior  to  the  idea  of  justification.  Conceive, 
for  an  instance,  a  prisoner  charged  with  some  crime,  and 
brought  before  the  tribunal  of  his  country.  He  is  found 
guilty  of  the  crime  laid  to  his  charge,  but  he  is  afterwards 
pardoned.  He  escapes  the  punishment  of  his  guilt,  but  he 
does  not  escape  the  imputation  of  guilt ;  he  is  not  justified. 
The  judge  looks  upon  that  man  as  a  guilty  man,  and  he  must 
for  ever  look  upon  himself  in  the  same  light.  Nothing  can 
replace  the  pardoned  criminal  precisely  in  the  same  position 
in  society,  which  he  occupied  before  he  committed,  or  was 
convicted  of  a  crime.  Now  suppose  a  prisoner  charged  with 
some  delinquency,  of  which  it  appears  upon  his  trial  that 
another  man  is  the  perpetrator,  and  that  he  is  wholly  inno- 
cent. In  this  case  he  leaves  the  bar  with  a  very  different 
character  from  the  former  ;  he  departs  an  innocent  man, 
without  the  shadow  of  an  imputation  resting  upon  his  cha- 
racter;  he  is,  in  fact,  completely  justified  in  the  eyes  of  the 
judge,  of  the  jury,  of  himself,  and  of  all  the  world.  The 
question  then  before  us  is  this.  How  can  a  man  stand  before 
the  tribunal  of  God  and  come  away  from  that  tribunal,  not 
merely  pardoned,  but,  as  in  the  case  we  have  been  imagining, 
actually  innocent,  perfectly  justified,  no  stigma  left  upon  his 
character,  no  stain  upon  his  conscience,  no  spot  of  sin  upon 
his  soul  ?  It  is  clear  that  it  cannot  be,  as  in  the  case  we  have 
imagined,  by  his  never  having  transgressed,  because  as  the 


36  DISCOURSE    III. 

law  of  God  now  stands,  and  as  we  have  already  demonstrated 
(while  considering  the  ninth  Article,)  "  there  is  no  man  that 
sinneth  not."*  It  must  therefore  be  either  by  a  total  change 
in  the  law  which  he  has  broken,  so  that  when  tried  accord- 
ing to  its  provisions  it  may  appear  that  he  never  has  trans- 
gressed ;  or  by  some  other  method  which  although  it  cannot 
find  an  exact  parallel  in  human  judicature,  has  been  originated 
and  acted  upon  by  the  King  of  kings,  and  Lord  of  lords. 

By  the  first  of  these,  the  change  or  abrogation  of  the  law 
of  God,  this  justification  can  certainly  never  be  effected  ;  for 
our  Lord  has  said  respecting  that  moral  law,  to  which  we 
refer,  and  which  we  all  have  broken,  '*  One  jot  or  one  tittle 
shall  in  no  wise  pass  from  the  law  till  all  be  fulfilled."! 
Therefore  there  can  be  no  hope  of  a  change  in  the  verdict,  from 
any  change  in  the  law.  It  is  then  to  some  other  method  that 
man  must  look  to  be  accounted  innocent,  nay  more  than  in- 
nocent, to  be  actually  righteous  before  God.  And  the  inten- 
tion of  the  eleventh  Article  is  simply  to  propound  this  method. 
These  are  the  words  of  the  Article,  "  We  are  accounted 
righteous  before  God,  only  for  the  merit  of  our  Lord  and 
Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  by  faith,  and  not  for  our  own  works 
or  deservings." 

The  method  then  appears  to  be  this,  that  in  our  Lord  and 
Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  God  of  his  infinite  mercy  has  provided 
for  us  a  surety  or  a  substitute,  who  shall  do  for  us  what  we 
could  never  do  for  ourselves,  viz.,  offer  to  God  a  most  per- 
fect and  unexceptionable  obedience,  and  that  for  the  sake  of 
this  obedience  even  unto  death,  involving  therefore  all  the 
unspeakable  merits  of  the  atonement,  we,  who  believe,  should 
be  "  accounted  righteous  before  God."  Or,  as  expressed  in 
the  language  of  Scripture,  "  He  hath  made  Him  to  be  sin 
for  us  who  knew  no  sin;  that  we  might  be  made  the  right- 
eousness of  God  in  Him."J 

*  1  Kings  viii.  46.  t  Matt.  v.  18.  t  2  Cor.  v.  21. 


ARTICLE    XI.  37 

The  Article  then  continues,  "  Wherefore,  that  we  are  justi- 
fied by  faith  only,  is  a  most  wholesome  doctrine,  and  very 
full  of  comfort :  as  is  more  largely  expressed  in  the  Homily 
of  Justification."* 

Strictly  speaking,  as  you  will  have  seen  from  the  former 
part  of  the  Article,  we  are  justified  by  the  merits  of  Christ 
only  ;  when  the  Article  therefore,  says,  "  we  are  justified  by 
faith  only,"  it  merely  refers  the  effect,  from  the  cause,  to 
the  instrument.  The  merits  of  Christ  are  the  casual  means, 
but  faith,  or  a  simple  reliance  upon  those  merits,  is  the  instru- 
mental means,  and  it  is  quite  clear  that  it  is  as  correct  to  state, 
that  we  are  justified  by  the  one,  as  by  the  other. 

But  while  we  are  thus  exalting  faith,  we  must  be  careful 
to  remember  that -it  is  but  an  instrument.  It  connects  the 
sinner  with  the  Saviour,  but  that  is  all;  as  to  its  own  merit, 
faith  is  as  worthless  as  hope,  or  joy,  or  love,  or  any  other 
grace,  in  causing  or  deserving  the  justification  of  its  possessor. 
This  is  very  strikingly  asserted  at  the  close  of  the  second 
part  of  "  The  Homily  on  Salvation,"  where  it  is  said  that 
"  John  the  Baptist,  although  a  virtuous  and  godly  man,  re- 
ferred all  the  people  from  himself  to  Christ,  for  the  forgiveness 
of  their  sins,  saying,  « Behold,  yonder  is  the  Lamb  of  God 
which  taketh  away  the  sins  of  the  world,'  (John  i.  29.)  So 
our  faith  in  Christ  saith  unto  us  thus: — It  is  not  I  that  take 
away  your  sins,  but  it  is  Christ  only  ;  and  to  him  only  I  send 
you  for  that  purpose,  forsaking  therein  all  your  good  virtues, 
words,  thoughts,  and  works,  and  only  putting  your  trust  in 
God."t 

To  demonstrate  that  this  great  doctrine  of  justification  by 
faith  only,  is  "  wholesome,"  as  our  Article  calls  it,  or  sound, 
it  would  be  necessary  and  it  would  be  perfectly  easy  to  show 


*  It  is  singular  that  there  should  be  no  homily  with  this  title.  There 
can,  however,  be  little  doubt  that  the  homily  entitled,  "  Of  the  Salvation 
of  all  Mankind,"  is  here  referred  to. 

t  Homilies,  8vo.  Oxford,  p.  23. 

4 


88  DISCOURSE    II  I. 

that  it  is,  in  fact,  the  one  great  leading  doctrine  from  Genesis 
to  Revelation.  As  our  time  will  not  admit  of  this,  we  can 
only  assert  that,  every  portion  of  the  book  of  inspiration 
preaches  the  truth,  which  the  Apostle  preaches  when  he  says, 
"  That  no  man  is  justified  by  the  law  in  the  sight  of  God,  it 
is  evident:  for,  the  just  shall  live  by  faith."*  "Therefore, 
we  conclude  that  a  man  is  justified  by  faith  without  the  deeds 
of  the  law."t  And  still  more  distinctly  in  the  text,  "  We 
have  believed  in  Jesus  Christ,  that  we  might  be  justified  by 
the  faith  of  Christ,  and  not  by  the  works  of  the  law  ;  for,  by 
the  works  of  the  law  shall  no  man  be  justified."  Indeed 
these  quotations  are  of  themselves  amply  sufficient ;  for  if  it 
be  the  unerring  Word  of  God,  one  assertion  of  that  word  is 
as  convincing  as  one  thousand.  If  it  be  objected  to  this  state- 
ment, that  when  the  Apostles  so  clearly  assert  that  no  man  is 
justified  by  works,  they  generally  add,  by  the  "  works  of  the 
law,"  and  always  intend  the  ceremonial  law,  it  may  not  be 
useless  to  mention,  that  precisely  the  same  thing  is  said  of 
Abraham,  "  If  Abraham  were  justified  by  works,  he  hath 
whereof  to  glory,"J  while  we  need  not  remind  you  that 
Abraham  was  justified  more  than  four  hundred  years  before 
the  ceremonial  law  was  given.  It  is  then  too  obvious  to  ad- 
mit of  argument,  that  the  declarations  of  the  Apostles  include 
all  laws  and  all  works,  and  distinctly  assert  that  in  the  manner 
of  justifying  a  sinner  before  God,  all  ceremonies,  all  obedience, 
all  virtues,  all  graces,  all  Christian  duties,  all  Christian  ordi- 
nances are  utterly  and  entirely  fruitless,  and  that  "  the  merits 
of  Christ  Jesus  alone,"  applied  to  each  heart  by  a  true  and 
living  faith,  must  form  the  plea  of  each  individual,  of  all  that 
countless  multitude  who  shall  be  acknowledged  as  the  ac- 
cepted people  of  God,  and  shall  dwell  around  the  throne  of 
God.  and  of  the  Lamb,  throughout  eternity. 

We  shall  not  occupy  your  time  by  quotations  from  the 
Homilies,  because  the  particular  homily  referred  to  in  the 

*  Gal.  iii.  11.  t  Rom.  iii.  28.  \  Rom.  iv.  2 


ART1CLEXI.  39 

Article  (viz.,  tlie  Three  Parts  of  "  the  Homily  on  the  Salva- 
tion of  Man,"*)  is  so  replete  with  this  doctrine,  that  none 
who  will  take  the  trouble  to  refer  to  it,  can  fail  of  conviction. 
We  shall  content  ourselves  in  corroboration  of  the  doctrine, 
with  a  passage  from  the  celebrated  sermon  of  the  judicious 
Hooker  on  Justification,  which  deserves  your  attention  not 
more  from  the  great  name  of  its  author,  than  from  its  own 
distinctness  and  beauty.  "  The  righteousness  wherein  we 
must  be  found,"  says  this  admirable  writer,  "  if  we  will  be 
justified,  is  not  our  own  ;  therefore,  we  cannot  be  justified 
by  any  inherent  quality.  Christ  hath  merited  righteousness 
for  as  many  as  are  found  in  Him.  In  Him  God  findeth  us, 
if  we  be  faithful ;  for  by  faith  we  are  incorporated  into  Christ. 
Then,  although  in  ourselves,  we  be  altogether  sinful  and  un- 
righteous, yet  even  the  man  who  is  impious  in  himself,  full 
of  iniquity,  full  of  sin,  him  being  found  in  Christ  through 
faith,  and  having  his  sin  remitted  through  repentance  ;  him 
God  beholdeth  with  a  gracicas  eye,  putteth  away  his  sin  by 
not  imputing  it,  taketh  away  the  punishment  due  thereto  by 
pardoning  it,  and  accepteth  him  in  Christ  Jesus,  as  perfectly 
righteous,  as  if  he  had  fulfilled  all  that  was  commanded  him 
in  the  law — shall  I  say  more  perfectly  righteous  than  if  him- 
self had  fulfilled  the  whole  law.  I  must  take  heed  what  I 
say ;  but  the  Apostle  saith,  '  God  made  Him  to  be  sin  for  us, 
who  knew  no  sin,  that  we  might  be  made  the  righteousness 
of  God  in  Him.'  Such  we  are  in  the  sight  of  God  the  Fa- 
ther, as  is  the  very  Son  of  God  himself.  Let  it  be  counted 
folly,  or  frenzy,  or  fury,  or  whatsoever,  it  is  our  comfort  and 
our  wisdom  ;  we  care  for  no  knowledge  in  the  world  but  this, 
that  man  hath  sinned  and  God  hath  suffered,  that  God  hath 
made  himself  the  Son  of  Man,  and  that  men  are  made  the 
righteousness  of  God." 

We  shall,  therefore,  consider  the  wholesomeness  or  sound- 


*  This  homily  is  from  the  pen  of  Archbishop  Cranmer  himself.— See 
Cranmer's  Works,     Oxford,  1833. 


40  DISCOURSE     II  I. 

ness  of  the  great  doctrine  in  question,  abundantly  established, 
and  proceed  to  consider  the  comfort  of  it.  The  Article  as- 
serts that  this  truth, "  we  are  justified  by  faith  only,"  is  "  very 
full  of  comfort."  To  prove  this  to  those  among  you,  who, 
by  divine  grace,  have  been  led  to  the  full  reception  of  its 
peace-giving  declarations,  will  be  sufficiently  easy,  but  to 
convince  those  to  whom  it  is  at  present  experimentally  un- 
known, is  indeed  a  most  difficult,  and,  of  ourselves,  a  hope- 
less task.  One  thing,  however,  we  may  attempt:  we  may 
show  you  that  your  present  doctrine  is  an  uncomfortable  one, 
so  uncomfortable,  that  as  long  as  you  retain  it,  you  can  never 
know  that  "  peace  of  God  which  passeth  all  understanding,"* 
the  last,  best  legacy  which  the  Prince  of  Peace  bequeathed  to 
his  faithful  followers. 

We  need  not  particularize  all  those- different  methods  which 
the  pride,  or  the  ignorance,  or  the  wisdom  of  man  has  in- 
vented to  occupy  the  place  of  this  great  doctrine  of  the  Bible. 
We  may  class  them  together,  and  address  all  those  among 
you  who  have  been  deceived  by  any  one  of  them  in  the 
same  language.  We  address  you,  then,  who  are  hoping  at 
the  last  great  day,  that  you  shall  be  "  accounted  righteous" 
because  God  is  merciful,  and  you  have  endeavoured  to  do 
your  duty  honesty,  and  uprightly,  and  virtuously  in  your 
different  vocations  :  You,  also,  who  in  addition  to  this  plea 
of  the  correctness  of  your  moral  duties,  have  provided  your- 
self with  another,  and  hope,  that  having  in  the  different  rela- 
tions of  life  performed  your  own  part  well,  the  merits  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  will  avail  to  fill  up  your  deficiencies : 
You,  again,  who  have  gone  beyond  the  two  preceding  classes, 
and  hope,  that  correct  moral  duties,  and  assiduous  attention 
to  spiritual  duties,  to  prayer,  to  sacraments,  to  reading  the 
Scripture,  will  fully  supply  your  portion,  and,  the  merits  of 
the  Saviour  being  freely  added  to  them,  cannot  fail  to  satisfy 
God.  We  address  you,  one  and  all,  and  say  upon  the  autho- 

*  Phil.  iv.  7. 


ARTICLE    XI.  41 

rity  of  the  Word  of  God  and  of  our  church,  thai  your  views 
are  not  only  as  we  have  proved  them  to  be,  unwholesome, 
but  most  uncomfortable.  They  are  all  founded  upon  this 
one  great  error,  that  God  will  accept  an  imperfect  obedience 
if  it  be  sincere,  in  the  place  of  that  perfect  obedience  which 
He  has  a  right  to  claim,  and  which  he  unquestionably  does 
claim,  at  the  hand  of  every  individual  sent  into  the  world. 

We  ask  you  then  from  what  portion  of  the  revealed  Word 
you  derive  this  opinion  ?  We  can  show  you  the  first  great 
declaration  respecting  obedience  ;  it  is  this,  "  Do  this  and 
live,"  or  as  amplified  and  explained  by  Moses,  "  Cursed  is 
every  one  that  continueth  not  in^//jhings  that  are  written  in 
the  book  of  the  law  to  do  them."*  You  will  observe,  there 
is  not  a  single  exception ;  you  must  do  all  the  things  that  God 
commands  ;  and  more,  you  must  "  continue,"  yes,  from  the 
hour  of  your  birth,  to  the  moment  of  your  death,  you  must 
continue  to  do  them  all,  or  there  is  no  hope  from  this  Cove- 
nant. Now  we  ask  you  in  return  to  show  us  from  the  Word 
of  God,  any  single  passage,  or  any  correct  combination  of 
passages,  to  prove  that  God  has,  under  the  gospel  dispensa- 
tion, ever  modified  this  command  first  given  to  Adam,  and 
reiterated  to  Moses ;  that  God  has  ever  promised  to  accept 
those  who  endeavour  conscientiously  to  "  continue  in  all 
things  that  are  written  in  the  book  of  the  law,"  to  do  them, 
although  they  only  imperfectly  succeed  in  the  endeavour.  It 
is  impossible.  There  is  no  such  passage  to  be  found.  It 
would  be  an  insult  to  the  purity,  and  holiness,  and  justice  of 
God,  to  expect  to  find  it.  God  can  accept  nothing  but  a 
perfect  obedience,  or  he  would  cease  to  be  a  perfect  God. 
You  are  standing  then  altogether  upon  a  wrong,  a  false,  an 
unwholesome  imagination, — a  mere  imagination,  no  shadow 
of  foundation  for  which  is  to  be  found  in  the  Scripture  of 
truth.  The  only  difference  that  God  has  ever  made  in  this  first 
great  law  of  perfect  and  unerring  obedience,  is,  that  when  it 

*  Gal.  iii.  10. 

4* 


42  DISCOURSE    III. 

became  manifest  that  no  perfect  law  could  be  given  which 
man  would  keep,  a  perfect  God  who  would  neither  offer  an 
imperfect  law,  nor  accept  an  imperfect  obedience  to  a  perfect 
law,  sent  His  only-begotten  Son  into  the  world  to  render  this 
perfect  obedience,  which  no  created  being  had  ever  rendered. 
Therefore  we  find  in  the  language  of  prophecy  the  Saviour 
saying,  "  A  body  hast  thou  prepared  me,  Lo  !  I  come  to  do 
thy  will,  O  my  God."*  I  come  to  do  what  has  never  yet 
been  done,  to  work  out  and  "  to  bring  in  everlasting  right- 
eousness." God  therefore  obtained  from  the  Surety  that 
which  he  could  never  have  received  from  us,  and  God  still 
exacts  this  perfect  righteousness  from  every  individual  who 
approaches  Him ;  but  now,  as  the  righteousness  of  Christ, 
or,  as  it  is  called  in  Scripture,  "the  righteousness  of  God," 
it  is  ready  for  every  believing  penitent  who  is  willing  to  re- 
ceive it  and  to  come  before  God,  clothed  in  that,  and  in  that 
alone,  and  desiring  with  the  Apostle  to  be  found  in  Him, 
(i.  e.,  in  Christ,)  "  not  having  mine  own  righteousness  which 
is  of  the  law,  but  that  which  is  through  the  faith  of  Christ, 
the  righteousness  which  is  of  God  by  faith." 

But  grant  for  a  moment  that  the  scheme  which  we  have 
been  contending  against  were  really  true  and  "  wholesome," 
and  would  it  not  be  still  most  uncomfortable  ?  For  sup- 
pose that  your  views  were  correct ;  that  together  with  the 
righteousness  of  Christ  there  must  be,  in  the  way  of  merit, 
something  of  your  own  to  offer,  before  you  can  feel  that  you 
are  "  accounted  righteous  before  God  !"  that  like  the  Israel- 
ites of  old,  you  have  a  certain  "  tale  of  bricks"  to  render ; 
then,  we  would  ask,  who  is  to  count  them  off  at  the  end  of 
each  day's  work,  and  give  you  your  discharge,  and  suffer 
you  to  lie  down  in  quiet?  Who  is  to  tell  you  when  the  tale 
is  complete,  and  when  you  are  really  justified  before  God? 
In  the  true  scheme  of  the  Gospel  this  is  so  easily  ascertained, 
that  the  veriest  babe  in  Christ  could  answer  you.  He 

*  Heb.  x.  5  ;  Psalm  xl.  7 ;  Heb.  x.  7. 


ARTICLE     XI.  43 

would  tell  you  that  when,  by  God's  grace,  you  close  with 
the  offers  of  a  crucified,  and  all-sufficient  Saviour,  and  cast 
your  soul  upon  Him  in  a  holy  and  scriptural  confidence,  that 
he  has  power  enough,  and  grace  enough,  to  receive  you,  to 
pardon  you  fully,  and  to  love  you  freely — that  even  then,  we 
may  say  to  you,  as  St.  John  to  the  young  converts  in  his 
days,  "  I  write  unto  you,  little  children,  because  your  sins 
are  forgiven  you  for  his  name's  sake,"  that  you  are  then  ac- 
counted righteous  before  God,  that  you  then  begin  to  "  run 
with  patience  the  race  that  is  set  before  you,  looking  unto 
Jesus  the  Author  and  Finisher  of  our  faith.  This  is  God's 
method  of  justifying  the  sinner.  How  different  is  your  own  ! 
you  can  never  feel  assured  that  you  are  really  justified  before 
God.  The  "  full  assurance  of  faith,"  as  the  Apostle  to  the 
Hebrews  calls  it,  must  ever  be  unknown  to  you  ;  there  must 
always  be,  even  to  the  most  scrupulous,  and  most  careful, 
and  most  pains-taking  among  you,  a  strong  degree  of  uncer- 
tainty and  doubt.  You  will  always  be  subject  to  some  such 
corroding  and  distressing  feelings  as  these — "  That  act  of 
charity  was  miserably  imperfect,  such  a  mingling  of  motives, 
such  a  deficiency  of  love  !"  "  That  prayer  could  never  reach 
the  mercy-seat,  such  wandering  thoughts,  such  unholy  ima- 
ginations !"  "  That  duty  can  never  be  well-pleasing  to  my 
heavenly  Father,  such  reluctance  and  unwillingness,  and 
almost  dislike,  even  during  the  performance  !"  "  Can  I  have 
done,  shall  I  ever  do,  my  part  in  this  great  work?"  Such, 
if  really  conscientious,  will  be  the  feelings  even  of  the  best  of 
those  among  you  who  are  looking  to  any  thing,  however 
trifling,  however  minute,  to  fill  up  the  measure  of  the  meri- 
torious offering  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  as  the  procuring 
cause  of  your  justification.  And  such,  although  they  know 
it  not,  is  one  of  the  most  frequent  causes  of  the  dispiriting 
and  gloomy  feelings  which  religion  imparts  to  nine-tenths  of 
those  who  make  a  kind  of  outward  profession  of  it,  without 
really  obtaining  the  full  and  genuine  feeling  of  the  great  truth 
of  the  text  within  their  souls.  We  have  often,  in  the  course 


44  DISCOURSE     II  I. 

of  our  ministry,  seen  those  whose  days  and  nights  have  been 
occupied  upon  this  important  subject,  reading,  praying,  think- 
ing, striving,  wearied  in  duties  until  they  become  irksome  and 
almost  hateful,  and  yet  never  knowing  the  feeling  of  a  settled 
peace  of  soul.  And  why  ?  simply  because  they  have  never  been 
rightly  instructed  in  the  great  work — have  never  been  taught 
to  look  altogether  from  themselves,  and  their  own  perform- 
ances, to  obtain  peace — have  never  been  led  to  cast  them- 
selves fully,  entirely,  and  undeservedly,  upon  the  "  full,  per- 
fect, and  sufficient  sacrifice"  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Until 
this  be  done,  there  can  be  no  justification,  no  pardon,  and 
therefore  no  abiding  scriptural  peace. 

If  we  speak  to  any  such  at  present,  we  would  entreat  you 
to  listen  while  we  address  a  few  words  to  the  true  people 
of  God,  and  may  you  learn  by  hearing  what  they  possess, 
to  discover  what  you  stand  in  need  of. 

To  you,  then,  Christian  brethren,  we  apply  the  words  of 
the  text,  and  say,  "  You  have  believed  in  Jesus  Christ  that 
you  might  be  justified  by  the  faith  of  Christ,  and  not  by  the 
works  of  the  law."  But  whence  was  this  ?  Were  you  born 
thus  ?  Was  there  never  a  period  when  you  also  were  stand- 
ing aside,  without  any  feelings  of  religion  which  could  be 
pronounced,  "  very  full  of  comfort  ?"  Was  there  never  a 
time  when  any  among  you  felt  it  difficult  even  to  thank  God 
for  your  creation,  (as  our  church  teaches  you  to  do,)  because 
you  were  so  uncertain  as  to  the  coming  eternity,  that  you 
felt  your  creation  rather  a  grievance  than  a  blessing  to  you  ? 
And  what  has  made  you  thus  different  from  your  former 
selves  ?  How  are  you  now  enabled  to  say,  even  from  the 
ground  of  your  hearts,  "  Lord,  it  is  good  for  us  to  be  here  ;" 
with  all  the  trials  and  the  troubles  of  life,  I  bless  thee  for 
my  creation ;  I  bless  thee  for  calling  me  to  pass  over  this  little 
isthmus  between  two  eternities,  because  I  have,  through  thy 
grace,  obtained  the  promise  of  the  life  which  now  is,  and  of 
that  which  is  to  come.  I  ask  you,  Christian  brethren,  how 
did  you  obtain  this  comfortable,  peaceful,  blessed  feeling  ? 


ARTICLE    XI.  45 

Did  you  acquire  it  from  the  proud  consciousness  of  what  is 
called  a  well-spent  life  ?  Did  you  obtain  it  by  looking  back 
upon  a  perfect  obedience  to  a  perfect  law,  which  was  fully 
sufficient  to  satisfy  the  strictest  demands  of  God  ?  Surely 
not  thus  did  you  acquire  your  present  peace  and  your  hope 
of  future  glory,  or  the  inspired  Word  of  our  God  would  not 
have  declared,  "  If  there  had  been  a  law  given  which  could 
have  given  life,  verily  righteousness  would  have  been  of  the 
law."  No,  the  law  did  for  you  that  for  which  it  was  given—- 
not to  insure  a  perfect  obedience,  but  to  convict  you  of  your 
imperfect  obedience :  thus  it  became  your  schoolmaster  to 
bring  you  to  Christ.  You  have  so  frequently  broken  its 
precepts,  and  deserved  its  punishments,  that  although  you 
have  .retained  it,  and  ever  will  retain  it,  as  a  rule  of  life,  you 
have  long  since  given  up  the  idea  of  a  meritorious  obedience 
to  it  as  utterly  hopeless,  and  you  have  fled  from  the  terrors 
of  a  broken  law  to  the  love,  and  compassion,  and  righteous- 
ness of  a  crucified  Saviour.  You  discovered,  by  the  teaching 
of  the  Spirit  of  God,  that  you  must  go  to  Christ,  and  to 
Christ  alone,  for  the  means  of  justification  before  God,  and 
by  the  aid  of  that  Spirit  you  approached  the  Saviour,  and 
fell  at  his  feet,  and  cried,  "  God  be  merciful  to  me  a  sinner." 
You  went  for  pardon  and  for  justification  ;  you  carried  no- 
thing with  you  but  your  sins,  and  a  most  earnest,  heartfelt 
desire,  to  repent  of  them  and  forsake  them  ;  you  went  simply 
to  receive,  not  to  pay  ;  you  went  as  a  beggar  for  an  alms,  as 
a  culprit  for  your  reprieve,  as  a  condemned  prisoner  for  your 
life ;  you  believed  that  He  whom  you  sought,  not  only  could, 
but  would  give  what  you  sought.  And  what  was  the  conse- 
quence ?  You  received  all  that  you  had  asked — all  that  God 
had  promised  ;  you  feceived  pardon  and  acceptance,  forgive- 
ness of  all  that  had  gone  before,  grace  and  strength  promised 
and  pledged  to  you,  for  all  that  is  to  come.  "  Therefore," 
as  the  Apostle  says,  "  therefore  being  justified  by  faith  you 
have  pea 36  with  God."  You  Jiave  no  corroding  fears  for 
the  past,  no  desponding  anxieties  for  the  future  :  you  cannot 


46  DISCOURSE     III. 

have,  or  at  least,  you  need  not  have ;  you  have  been  "  ac- 
counted righteous  through  the  merits  of  Christ,"  you  have 
been  made  partaker  of  "  the  righteousness  of  God,  which  is 
by  faith  of  Jesus  Christ  unto  all  and  upon  all  them  that  be- 
lieve ;"  yes,  "  unto  all  and  upon  all,"  therefore,  "  unto  and 
upon"  the  weakest,  feeblest,  youngest  believer,  who  ever 
with  the  hand  of  an  infant  faith,  touched  the  hem  of  the 
Saviour's  garment,  and  with  His  kind  and  merciful  permission, 
drew  that  garment  as  a  covering  over  his  own  pollution,  and 
nakedness,  and  sin. 

There  is  with  you  no  question  now,  whether  you  have 
done  enough  to  co-operate  with  your  Saviour  in  this  great 
work  ;  therefore  there  is  no  doubt  with  yon,  whether  enough 
be  done  ;  no  uncertainty  whether  you  are,  or  are  not,  justified 
before  God :  you  feel  the  full  force  and  consolation  of  the 
Apostle's  words,  "  Therefore  it  is  of  faith,  that  it  might  be 
by  grace ;  to  the  end  the  promise  might  be  sure  to  all  the 
seed."*  That  it  might  not  be  a  matter  of  doubt,  but  of  as- 
surance to  all  the  seed,  to  every  member  in  Christ's  redeemed 
family,  who  has  thus  approached  him  in  a  true  and  living 
faith,  to  receive  that  as  an  act  of  free  favour,  which  others, 
in  vain,  are  toiling  to  deserve. 

From  this  point  then,  you  commence  your  Christian  life ; 
being  justified  freely,  you  now  "  run  the  way  of  God's  com- 
mandments," "  obeying  from  the  heart  that  form  of  doctrine 
which  has  been  delivered  to  you  ;"  delighting  in  the  service 
of  Him  who  loved  you,  and  gave  himself  for  you  ;  deploring 
your  many  short-comings,  repenting  of  your  many  sins,  but 
still  holding  on  your  way,  through  good  and  ill,  through  weal 
and  wo,  the  hand  of  your  Lord  guiding  and  supporting  you 
in  "all  holiness  and  godliness  of  living,"  and  you  yourselves 
bringing  forth  the  fruits  of  faith,  and  resting  in  a  simple,  child- 
like reliance  upon  the  declaration  of  our  God,  that  "  whom  he 


'  Rom.  iv.  16. 


ARTICLEXI.  47 

called,  them  he  also  justified,  and  whom  he  justified,"*  them 
also  he  shall  one  day  glorify  for  ever  and  ever. 

And  now  brethren,  we  once  more,  and  only  for  a  few 
moments,  return  to  you  whom  we  before  addressed.  Do  you 
clearly  perceive  the  difference  between  these  persons  and 
yourselves,  as  regards  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ? 

You  are  willing  to  take  the  Saviour  with  you  when  you 
go  up  for  justification  to  the  tribunal  of  God  ;  they  depended 
upon  his  taking  them.  You  would  not  expect  to  be  accounted 
righteous  for  your  own  merits  alone;  they  would  not  for  a 
moment  imagine  that  they  had  ever  done  a  single  deed  which 
deserved  the  name  of  merit ;  if  reminded  of  them,  they  would 
ask  with  unfeigned  astonishment,  "  Lord,  when  saw  we  thee 
a  hungered,  or  athirst,  or  naked,  or  in  prison,  and  ministered 
unto  thee  ?"t  To  you,  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  is  a  valuable 
coadjutor;  to  them,  he  is  "all  in  all  ;"f  for  he  is  "made 
unto  them,  wisdom,  and  righteousness,  and  sanctification,  and 
redemption."!!  You  are  "  working  for  salvation,"  as  an 
object  at  which  you  shall  one  day  arrive  ;  they  are  "  working 
from  salvation,"  as  the  object  at  which  they  started.  All 
that  you  are  doing  is  intended  in  some  degree  to  propitiate 
God  ;  all  that  they  are  doing  is  flowing  from  a  sense  of  holy 
obedience,  and  from  a  grateful  love  to  God,  who  first  loved, 
and  pardoned,  and  justified  them.  We  leave  it  to  yourselves 
to  determine  which  of  these  two  views  must  tend  the  most  to 
promote  the  glory  of  God  our  Father,  the  honour  of  Christ 
Jesus  our  Lord,  and  the  comfort  and  happiness  of  his  people. 
But  we  must  not  leave  it  to  you  to  imagine  that  the  difference 
is  slight,  or  immaterial,  that  it  is  a  mere  difference  in  the 
amount  of  comfort,  or  of  wholesomeness  of  doctrine.  It  is  an 
absolute  and  irreconcilable  difference.  It  is  the  difference 
between  light  and  darkness,  between  life  and  death.  The 
one  view  of  justification  is  a  mere  figment  from  the  brain  of 
man,  the  other  is  the  great  truth  of  God  which  will  determine 

*  Rom.  viii.  30.        t  Matt.  xxv.       t  1  Cor.  xv.  28.       II  1  Cor.  i  30. 


48  DISCOURSE     IV. 

our  eternity ;  for  upon  it  will  hang  the  decisions  of  the  day 
of  judgment !  All  religion  is  therefore  utterly  vain  which 
does  not  centre  and  settle  here.  The  unrighteous  cannot 
enter  heaven,  for  thus  has  the  unerring  Word  of  God  pro- 
nounced, "  Know  ye  not  that  the  unrighteous  shall  not  inherit 
the  Kingdom  of  God  ?"*  but  then  all  are  unrighteous  until 
they  have  been  justified  by  the  merits  of  the  Lord  Jesus  ap- 
plied by  a  living  faith.  Can  you  resist  the  inference — That 
they  who  are  not  thus  justified,  can  never,  by  any  possibility, 
be  admitted  there  ? 

May  God  of  his  infinite  mercy  grant  that  these  words  may 
sink  deep  into  our  hearts,  giving  us  no  peace,  no  rest,  until 
we  have  ascertained  that  this  great  and  blessed  work  has  been 
effected  in  our  souls,  and  are  thus  enabled  to  experience  the 
full  comfort  of  the  declaration  of  the  Spirit  of  our  God, 
"There  is  now  no  condemnation  to  them  which  are  in  Christ 
Jesus,  who  walk  not  after  the  flesh,  but  after  the  Spirit."! 


DISCOURSE   IV. 

COL.  i.  part  of  verse '10. 

That  ye  might  walk  worthy  of  the  Lord  unto  all  pleasing,  being  fruitful 
in  every  good  work. 

IT  is  a  remarkable  assertion  of  the  Apostle  to  the  Corin- 
thians, but  not  more  remarkable  than  true,  "  Now  abideth 
faith,  hope,  charity,  these  three ;  but  the  greatest  of  these  is 
charity. "J  And  who  can  doubt  it  ?  Without  any  reference 
to  the  obvious  fact,  that  while  the  two  former  are  transitory, 
the  last  is  perpetual,  is  it  not  evident  that  after  all,  faith  and 
hope  are  but  as  the  scaffolding  of  the  spiritual  house,  while 
the  house  itself,  the  glorious  superstructure,  is  love.  Love  to 

*  1  Cor.  vi.  9.  t  Rom.  viii.  1.  t  1  Cor.  xiii.  13. 


ARTICLES     XI  I.    XIII.    XIV.  49 

God  and  love  to  man ;  love  to  every  created  being  through- 
out all  time,  love  to  the  blessed  inmates  of  the  heavenly  man- 
sions throughout  eternity.  The  object  then  of  all  religion  is 
to  give  to  fallen  man  the  power  and  the  will,  which  as  we 
have  seen  he  has  not  by  nature,  to  live  this  life  of  love  on 
earth,  that  he  may  be  fitted  and  educated  for  the  eternity  of 
love  in  heaven.  Every  thing  connected  with  this  high  feeling 
is  regards  our  fellow-men,  is  comprehended  in  Scripture  in 
the  expressive  term,  "  Good  works."  And  it  is  to  this  im- 
portant subject,  that  the  twelfth,  thirteenth,  and  fourteenth 
Articles  will  at  present  direct  our  attention. 

There  are  four  great  errors  continually  springing  up  in  the 
natural  heart  of  man  with  respect  to  this  deeply  important 
topic.  These  have  been  corrected  by  our  church  in  the  three 
Articles  to  which  I  have  referred,  and  which  therefore  shall 
be  taken  together  for  the  subject  of  our  consideration.  The 
first  of  these  errors,  viz.,  that  a  man  can  be  justified  before 
God  for  his  work's  sake,  was  sufficiently  considered  under 
the  eleventh  Article,  and  therefore,  will  not  now  require  our 
attention.  The  second  is  of  this  nature,  That  all  works  of 
honesty,  and  charity,  and  uprightness,  must  necessarily  be  so 
pleasing  in  the  sight  of  God,  that  let  them  be  performed  by 
who  they  may,  they  cannot  fail  to  draw  down  upon  the  per- 
former the  love  and  the  grace  or  favour  of  God  ;  that,  in  fact, 
they  at  least  render  men  Jit  to  receive  this  favour,  even  if  they 
do  not  actually  purchase  it.  Against  this  error,  an  error 
indeed  expressly  of  the  Pelagians  and  Papists,  but  not  less 
expressly  an  error  of  every  natural  and  unconverted  heart, 
the  thirteenth  Article  protests  in  the  following  decisive 
manner — 

XIII.   Of  Works  before  Justification 

"  Works  done  before  the  grace  of  Christ — " 
You  will  observe  our  church  takes  especial  care  not  to 
recognize  them  as  good  works,  although  she  is  evidently  re- 
ferring to  those  which  would  be  called  so  in  the  world.    She 

5 


50  DISCOURSE    IV. 

contents  herself  with  saying,  "  Works  done  before  the  grace 
of  Christ  and  the  inspiration  of  his  Spirit,  are  not  pleasant  to 
God,  for  as  much  as  they  spring  not  of  faith  in  Jesus  Christ : 
neither  do  they  make  men  meet  to  receive  grace,  or  (as  the 
school  authors  say)  deserve  '  grace  of  congruity  :'  yea,  rather, 
for  that  they  are  not  done  as  God  hath  willed  and  commanded 
them  to  be  done,  we  doubt  not  but  they  have  the  nature  of  sin." 

There  are  few  Articles  of  the  church  which  are  more  stag- 
gering to  the  heart  of  "  the  natural  man"  than  this,  and  yet 
few  that  more  immediately  approve  themselves  to  the  heart  of 
the  "  spiritual  man." 

The  Article  simply  asserts  that  no  works  performed  before 
justification,  i.  e.  as  we  demonstrated  in  the  last  discourse, 
before  we  have  been  led  to  close  with  the  offers  of  reconcilia- 
tion to  God  through  Christ,  and  have  been  thus  "  accounted 
righteous"  through  his  merits,  are  "pleasant  to  God."  Con- 
sider only  for  a  moment  the  declarations  of  the  Articles  which 
have  preceded  this,  and  you  will  see  that  it  is  utterly  impos- 
sible to  come  to  any  other  conclusion.  The  ninth  Article  has 
declared  that  we  are  "  very  far  gone  from  original  righteous- 
ness," that  "  the  flesh  is  always  lusting  against  the  Spirit," 
and  "  deserving  .  God's  wrath  and  damnation."  The  tenth 
Article  has  shown  that  from  this  condition  man  "  cannot  turn 
and  prepare  himself,"  i.  e.  without  the  grace  of  Christ,  and 
therefore  has  no  power  to  do  good  works  "  pleasant  and  ac- 
ceptable to  God."  It  is,  then,  the  following  consequence  of 
these  great,  and  solemn,  and  humiliating  truths,  that  every 
"  work  done  before  the  grace  of  "Christ,"  must  be  unpleasant 
to  God,  and  even  as  the  close  of  the  Article  strongly,  but  not 
more  strongly  than  scripturally,  asserts,  must  "  have  the 
nature  of  sin."  We  say,  not  more  strongly  than  scripturally; 
for  the  Apostle  to  the  Romans  has  asserted  the  same  thing, 
almost  in  the  same  words,  when  he  says,  "  whatsoever  is  not 
of  faith  is  sin."* 

*  Rom.  xiv.  23. 


ARTICLES     XII.     XIII.     XIV.  51 

This  is  the  portion  of  the  Article  which  is  a  stumbling- 
block  to  many  readers  ;  the  feelings  of  their  minds  with  re- 
spect to  it  are  of  his  nature.  Can  it  be  possible  that  all  the 
amiable,  honest,  just,  and  honourable  actions  of  a  man's  life, 
performed  before  he  has  received  "  the  grace  of  Christ,"  can 
possess  the  nature  of  sin,  in  the  sight  of  our  merciful  Father  ? 
Is  he  so  severe  a  judge  that  he  will  not  look  with  an  eye  of 
satisfaction  upon  those  many  virtuous  deeds  of  virtuous  men, 
which  gladden  the  countenance  and  cheer  the  souls  of  all 
around  them,  and  which  deserve  and  receive  "  the  blessing 
of  him  that  was  ready  to  perish,"  and  cause  "  the  widow's 
heart  to  sing  for  joy  ?"* 

This  is  perhaps  stating  the  objection  as  fairly  and  as 
strongly  as  can  be  stated,  and  yet  we  doubt  not  that  to  the 
reflecting  people  among  you,  a  very  little  consideration  will 
induce  you  to  agree  to  the  justice  of  the  verdict  which  our 
church  pronounces  even  upon  such  acts  as  these.  Indeed 
the  very  reason  which  our  church  gives  for  her  decision,  will 
go  far  towards  removing  the  objection  from  every  unpre- 
judiced mind.  She  says  that  these  works  "  have  the  nature 
of  sin,"  simply,  because  "  they  are  not  done  as  God  hath 
willed  and  commanded  them  to  be  done."  God  has  com- 
manded, not  that  they  should  be  left  undone,  but  that  they 
should  be  done  from  love  to  his  name,  that  they  should  be 
the  fruits  of  a  true  and  living  faith  ;  if,  then,  they  are  per- 
formed,— but  performed  from  any  other  motive,  for  it  is  un- 
necessary to  refer  to  their  inherent  imperfection  and  corrup- 
tion,— but  if  they  are  performed  from  any  other  motive  than 
God  has  commanded,  it  is  clear  that  as  regards  God  and  the 
actor  of  those  works,  they  "  have  the  nature  of  sin,"  they 
are  the  breach  of  a  command,  instead  of  the  fulfilment  of  one, 
and  however  estimable  in  the  sight  of  our  fellow  men,  can- 
not be  pleasant  to  him  whose  will  they  are  opposing.  For 
instance,  if  we  are  charitable  to  obtain  the  praise  of  men ;  if 

*  Job  xxix.  13» 


52  DISCOURSE     IV. 

we  are  benevolent  to  gratify  the  feelings  of  a  heart  bleeding 
at  the  sight  of  others'  woes  ;  if  we  are  liberal,  because  it 
fosters  our  vanity  ;  if  we  are  just,  because  it  satisfies  our  high- 
mindedness ;  if  we  are  kind  and  condescending,  because  it 
ministers  to  our  pride  ;  can  we  affect  surprise  that,  however 
pleasing  to  God  may  be  the  actions  taken  abstractedly,  and 
without  reference  to  the  actor,  they  have  "  the  nature  of  sin" 
when  taken  with  reference  to  the  actor,  and  are  really  sinful 
as  regards  his  motives,  principles,  and  objects. 

There  is  an  incident  in  ancient  history,  which  may,  per- 
haps, tend  to  illustrate  this.  You  will  recollect  in  Roman 
story,  that  at  a  time  when  the  discipline  of  the  army  pecu- 
liarly required  the  most  entire  and  positive  obedience  to  the 
orders  of  the  commander,  that  commander  forbade  that  any 
individual  should  leave  the  ranks,  upon  any  pretence,  under 
pain  of  immediate  death.  The  order  was,  as  you  will  re- 
member, violated  by  his  own  son,  who,  indignant  at  the  in- 
sults, and  menaces,  and  scorn,  of  some  champion  of  the  enemy, 
spurred  forth  to  meet  him,  and  having  slain  him  in  single 
combat,  brought  back  the  trophies  to  his  father's  feet. 

We  need  riot  remind  you,  that  the  conqueror  was  ordered 
to  immediate  execution.  The  act  of  heroism,  which,  if  per- 
formed in  obedience  to  command,  would  have  deserved  and 
received  the  crown,  performed  as  it  was,  in  direct  opposition 
to  command,  conducted  its  perpetrator,  and  with  perfect  jus- 
tice to  the  scaffold.  We  are  not  defending  the  feeling,  or  the 
morality  of  the  act,  but  its  justice,  which  is  the  only  part  of 
the  incident  which  forms  any  parallel  to  the  subject  before  us. 

It  was  just  that  the  commander  should  order  the  delinquent 
to  execution  ;  it  is  just  that  God  should  view  with  displeasure, 
and  treat  as  sins,  those  acts  which,  however  grateful  to  the 
natural  feeling,  are  destitute  of  all  that  can  give  them  value 
in  his  eyes,  because  they  are  done  with  no  single  reference 
to  himself,  because  they  are  performed  neither  in  obedience 
to  his  will,  nor  in  love  and  honour  to  his  name,  nor  with  any 
desire  for  his  glory. 


ARTICLES    XII.    XIII.    XIV.  53 

The  third  error  into  which  men  have  fallen  respecting  good 
works,  is,  that  it  is  possible  to  present  so  large  an  abundance 
of  them  to  God  in  the  life  of  a  truly  converted  man  of  God, 
that  he  may  render  far  more  of  them,  out  of  his  great  zeal, 
and  love  to  God,  than  God  ever  required  at  his  hands.  This, 
I  need  scarcely  tell  you,  is  the  Romish  doctrine  of  *'  works 
of  supererogation."  Upon  this  it  is  unnecessary  to  dwell ; 
if  there  be  a  Protestant  inclined  to  maintain  so  unscriptural  a 
dogma,  it  is  enough  for  him  to  consider  what  God  really  re- 
quires, before  he  presumes  to  pronounce  that  more  can  be 
rendered.  Almost  a  single  extract  from  the  Divine  Word 
will  set  this  at  rest  for  ever.  Our  Lord  himself  has  said, 
"Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  and 
with  all  thy  soul,  and  with  all  thy  mind,"  and,  "  thy  neigh- 
bour as  thyself."*  It  is  perfectly  evident  that  before  works 
of  supererogation  can  commence,  works  positively  enjoined, 
and  commanded,  must  have  been  completed.  We  do  not 
ask,  where  then  is  the  man  who  has  thus  perfectly  loved 
both  God  and  his  neighbour ;  we  might  allow  for  a  moment, 
that  such  a  one  could  be  found,  but  granting  this,  what  pos- 
sibility could  exist  of  giving  more  love  than  could  be  given 
when  he  gave  the  whole  heart ;  or  doing  more  duties  than 
could  be  done,  when  he  is  already  engaged  to  the  utmost 
efforts  of  his  whole  soul,  and  mind,  and  strength,  in  perform- 
ing what  is  absolutely  required  of  him  ?  The  inquiry  in- 
volves a  contradiction  even  in  terms  ;  the  point  is  too  obvious 
to  reason  upon  ;  and  our  Article  therefore  wisely  shuts  it  up 
with  the  single  observation,  "  CHRIST  SAITH  PLAINLY,  When 
ye  have  done  all  that  are  commanded  to  you,  say,  We  are 
unprofitable  servants." 

But  there  is  yet  a  fourth  error  with  respect  to  this  same 
subject,  the  very  contrary  to  these  which  we  have  already 
considered,  but  still  not  less  an  error  than  those  which  have 
preceded  it.  This  is  the  error  of  the  Antinomians,  who  con- 

*  Matt.  xxii.  37  and  39. 

5* 


54  DISCOURSE    IV. 

tend  that  in  the  persons  of  the  justified,  neither  evil  works 
nor  good  works  are  of  any  account :  that  sin  in  them  will 
not  oflend  God,  and  that  works  of  piety,  or  holiness,  01 
charity,  are  not  necessary  to  please  him :  in  fact,  that  every 
thing  beyond  the  one  great  doctrine  and  the  one  great  privi- 
lege of  the  justified,  the  "being  in  Christ"  is  utterly  value- 
less and  immaterial.  It  is  for  the  purpose  of  counteracting 
this  most  licentious  doctrine,  as  well  as  for  establishing  that 
truth  which  we  considered  in  the  last  discourse, — that  we 
are  not  "accounted  righteous"  "for  our  own  works  or  de- 
servings," — that  the  twelfth  Article  was  appointed.  These 
are  the  words  of  the  Article. 

XII.     Of  good  Works. 

"Albeit  that  good  works,  which  are  the  fruits  of  faith,  and 
follow  after  justification,  cannot  put  away  our  sins  and  endure 
the  severity  of  God's  judgment,  yet  are  they  pleasing  and 
acceptable  to  God  in  Christ,  and  do  spring  out  necessarily 
of  a  true  and  lively  faith ;  insomuch  that  by  them  a  lively 
faith  may  be  as  evidently  known,  as  a  tree  discerned  by  the 
fruit." 

Upon  the  former  part  of  this  Article,  which  refers  to  the 
first  error  that  we  have  enumerated,  and  plainly  declares  that 
"  good  works  cannot  put  away  our  sins,"  we  need  not  dwell, 
having  shown  this  most  distinctly  from  the  Word  of  God  and 
the  authority  of  our  church,  while  explaining  the  doctrine  of 
justification.  Neither  need  we  corroborate  it  by  the  Homi- 
lies ;  it  is  sufficient  to  refer  you  to  the  Homily,*  in  three 
parts,  dedicated  to  this  express  subject.  We  will,  therefore, 
on  this  portion  of  the  Article,  only  add  a  single  testimony, 
too  valuable  to  be  omitted,  from  the  admirable  sermon  of 
Hooker,  from  which  we  quoted  in  the  last  discourse,  and 
which  is  as  clear  upon  the  necessity  of  good  works  in  their 

*  See  Homily  on  "  Good  Works." 


ART  1C  LES     XII.    XIII.    IV.  55 

place,  and  the  utter  fruitlessness  of  them  when  taken  out  of 
their  place,  as  the  last  passage  which  we  cited  from  him,  was 
upon  the  nature  of  the  sinner's  justification.  These  are  his 
Words — "  The  best  things  we  do  have  somewhat  in  them  to 
be  pardoned  ;  how  then  can  we  do  any  thing  meritorious  or 
worthy  to  be  rewarded  ?  Wherefore  we  acknowledge  a  duti- 
ful necessity  of  doing  well ;  but  the  meritorious  dignity  of 
doing  well,  we  utterly  renounce.  We  see  how  far  we  are 
from  the  perfect  righteousness  of  the  law.  The  little  fruit 
we  have  in  holiness,  is,  God  knoweth,  corrupt  and  unsound ; 
we  have  no  confidence  in  it ;  we  challenge  nothing  in  the 
world  for  it.  We  dare  riot  call  God  to  reckoning,  as  if  we 
had  him  in  our  debt-books.  Our  continual  suit  to  him  is, 
and  must  be,  to  bear  with  our  infirmities,  and  pardon  our 
offences."* 

The  Article  before  us  having  decided  this  point,  continues 
most  justly  and  scripturally  to  observe,  though  "good 
works  cannot  put  away  our  sins,"  which  the  mere  legalist 
believes  that  they  can ;  or  "  endure  the  severity  of  God's 
judgment,"  which  the  Council  of  Trent  expressly  decreed 
that  they  could ;  "  yet  are  they  pleasing,  and  acceptable  to 
God  in  Christ,  and  do  spring  out  necessarily  of  a  true  and 
lively  faith."t 

Nothing  can  be  more  scripturally  correct,  or  more  scrip- 
turally guarded,  than  these  expressions  of  our  church  ;  they 
give  that  weight  and  prominency  to  good  works  which  the 
Word  of  God  gives,  but  nothing  further.  They  do  not  even 
distinctly  assert  that  no  man  can  enter  heaven  without  good 
works,  because,  though  unquestionably  such  is  the  rule,  yet 
the  compilers  of  our  Articles,  well  knew  that  there  might  be, 
and  that  indeed  there  must  be,  many  exceptions.  For,  as 
the  first  part  of  the  Homily  on  good  works,  quaintly,  but 
truly  says,  "  I  can  show  a  man  that  by  faith,  without  works, 
lived  and  came  to  heaven  ;  but  without  faith  never  man  had 

*  Disc.  Just.  sec.  7.  t  See  Burnet  on  Art.  12. 


56  DISCOURSEIV. 

life.  The  thief  that  was  hanged  when  Christ  suffered,  did 
believe  only ;  and  the  most  merciful  God  justified  and  saved 
him.  And  because  no  man  shall  say  again  that  he  lacked 
time  to  do  good  works,  for  else  he  would  have  done  them ; 
truth  it  is,  and  I  will  not  contend  therein:  but  this  I  will 
truly  affirm,  that  faith  only  saved  him."* 

As  long  as  we  believe  in  the  possibility  of  what  is  called 
*4  a  deathbed  repentance"  however  rare;  as  long  as  we 
would  not  exclude  from  heaven  even  those  who  are  called 
to  God  at  the  eleventh  hour,  and  in  the  last  closing  scene  of 
life  are  led  by  the  grace  of  God  to  lay  hold  of  that  salvation 
which  Christ  has  purchased  for  them  ;  so  long  we  must  also 
believe  that  it  is  possible  for  the  truly  penitent  and  converted 
sinner  to  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  God,  with  heart  and 
affections  fully  prepared  to  bring  forth  a  harvest  of  good 
fruits  to  the  glory  of  God,  though  time  and  opportunity  have 
been  on  earth  denied  him. 

It  is,  however,  of  the  rule,  and  not  of  its  exceptions,  that 
we  would  speak  ;  and  all  scripture  demonstrates  that  the  rule 
is,  "  He  that  abideth  in  me,  and  I  in  him,  the  same  bringeth 
forth  much  fruit."t  We  say  that  all  Scripture  is  full  of  this 
important  doctrine  ;  asserting  at  one  time,-  that  "  In  Christ 
Jesus  neither  circumcision  availeth  any  thing,  nor  uncircum- 
cision,  but  faith  which  worketh  by  love."J  At  another, 
showing  that  good  works  are  "  pleasing  and  acceptable  unto 
God,"  when  it  declares,  "  God  is  not  unrighteous  to  forget 
your  work  and  labour  of  love."§  And  again,  "I  heard  a 
voice  from  heaven  saying  unto  me,  Write,  Blessed  are  the 
dead  which  die  in  the  Lord  from  henceforth  ;  yea,  saith  the 
Spirit,  that  they  may  rest  from  their  labours,  and  their  works 
do  follow  them. "|| 

But,  brethren,  it  is  not  enough  that  we  acknowledge  this, 
as  a  matter  of  orthodox  and  spiritual  truth ;  the  question  is, 

*  P.  40,  8vo.  ed.  Oxford,  1802.  t  John  xv.  5. 

t  Gal.  v.  6.  $  Heb.  vi.  10.  II  Rev.  xiv.  13. 


ARTICLES     XII.    XIII.    XIV.  57 

do  we  steadily,  perseveringly,  and  consistently  act  upon  it  as 
the  rule  of  our  lives?  Are  we  thus  engaged  in  "bringing 
forth  much  fruit"  to  the  glory  of  God?  What  a  libel  upon 
Christianity  are  the  unfruitful  lives  of  its  professors  !  The 
worldly  followers  of  a  religion,  one  of  whose  first  injunctions 
is  that  the  world  should  be  crucified  to  us,  and  we  unto  the 
world.*  The  self-pleasing  followers  of  a  Saviour,  who  dis- 
tinctly declared,  "  Whosoever  doth  not  bear  his  cross  and 
come  after  me,  cannot  be  my  disciple. "t  The  unkind  and 
unamiable,  and  unlovely  followers  of  Him  whose  example 
and  whose  Word  have  said,  "  This  is  my  commandment,  That 
ye  love  one  another  as  I  have  loved  you."J 

Let  us,  then,  in  conclusion,  shortly  apply  the  great  lesson 
before  us.  And  here  it  is  obvious,  that  I  can  address  myself 
only  to  the  converted  and  the  renewed  people  of  God,  and  for 
this  simple  reason  that,  as  we  have  seen  both  from  the  twelfth 
and  thirteenth  articles,  none  other  but  they  who  are  really 
justified  before  God,  can  perform  what  holy  Scripture  and 
our  church  denominate  "  good  works."  To  you,  then,  we 
would  not  be  content  to  say,  you  must  be  just,  and  honour- 
able, and  charitable,  and  amiable,  and  condescending,  and 
humble,  and  meek,  and  affectionate,  and  true,  but  we  would 
say  with  the  Apostle,  "  Whatsoever  things  are  true,  whatso- 
ever things  are  just,  whatsoever  things  are  pure,  whatsoever 
things  are  lovely,  whatsoever  things  are  of  good  report ;  if 
there  be  any  virtue,  if  there  be  any  praise,  think  on"  and 
practise  "  these  things. "§  Yea,  we  would  go  farther  still, 
and  say  with  our  divine  Master,  "  What  do  ye  more  than 
others  ?"||  implying  in  the  strongest  possible  manner  that  the 
true  followers  of  God  must  not  only  believe  more,  but  "  do 
more  than  others."  So  far  from  the  free  salvation,  of  which 
you  are  the  blessed  subjects,  exonerating  you  in  any,  the 
smallest  degree,  from  those  moral  duties  which  it  is  the 


*  See  Gal.  vi   14.  t  Lukexiv.  27.  t  John  xv.  12. 

$  Phil.  iv.  8.  ||  Matt.  y.  47. 


58  DISCOURSE     IV. 

boast  of  the  world,  though  God  knows  it  is  an  empty  boast, 
that  they  perform  ;  more,  infinitely  more,  is  expected  from 
the  man  of  God,  than  is  even  aimed  at  by  the  man  of  the 
world.  Is  the  worldly  man,  for  instance,  punctual  in  all  his 
engagements,  upright  and  honourable  in  every  thing  which 
he  undertakes  ;  you  must  be  more  scrupulously  so,  you  must 
excel  him  in  the  measure  of  your  good  works,  as  much  as 
you  undoubtedly  already  excel  him  in  the  motives  of  them. 
He  performs  all  these  duties,  because  they  are  expected  of 
him  by  his  fellow-men,  because  they  are  part  and  parcel  of 
that  code  of  honour  to  which  every  highminded  man  of  the 
world  considers  himself  amenable,  and  without  a  scrupulous 
attention  to  which  he  could  not  for  a  single  day  maintain  his 
footing  in  society.  You  are  expected  to  perform  them,  and 
if  you  are  a  sincere  follower  of  God,  you  will  perform  them, 
as  the  fruits  of  a  true  and  lively  faith.  Knowing  how  much 
God  has  done  for  you,  utterly  undeserving,  you  will  endeavour 
to  act  in  such  a  manner  towards  your  fellow-men,  though 
equally  undeserving,  not,  as  shall  best  serve  your  interest  in 
a  selfish  world,  but  as  shall  be  most  acceptable  to  a  God  of 
purity,  a  God  of  justice,  a  God  of  love.*  Gratitude  alone 
would  insure  this  at  your  hands,  for  knowing  what  you  have 
received,  you  will  be  always  asking,  "  What  shall  I  render  ?"* 
but  more  than  gratitude  demands  it.  Your  good  works  must 
be  the  evidence  of  your  gratitude,  but  they  must  also  be  the 
fruits  of  "  a  true  and  lively  faith."  "  Without  holiness  no 
man  shall  see  the  Lord  ;"t  and  has  not  the  Word  of  God 
itself  declared  that  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  "  became  the  author 
of  eternal  salvation  unto  all  them  that  OBEY  him."f  We  do 
not  scruple  therefore  to  tell  you  that  "  faith  without  works  is 
dead,  being  alone,"§  that  you  may  boast  of  the  highest 
spiritual  attainments,  of  the  most  exalted  faith,  of  the  deepest 
experience,  and  yet,  wanting  those  Christian  virtues,  which 

*  Psalm  cxvi.  12.  t  Heb.  xii.  14. 

t  Heb.  r.  9.  $  James  ii.  17. 


ARTICLES    XII.    XIII.    XIV.  59 

endear  man  to  his  fellows,  and  which  liken  him  to  the  meek, 
and  lowly,  and  forgiving,  and  compassionate  Redeemer,  you 
are  in  reality  destitute  of  that  saving  faith  from  which  they 
necessarily  spring,  and  you  have  therefore  neither  part  nor 
lot  in  the  salvation  which  it  secures. 

My  Christian  brethren,  we  own  we  do  at  all  times  feel  it 
necessary  to  speak  strongly  upon  these  practical  subjects, 
because  we  firmly  believe  that  one  unholy  and  inconsistent, 
or  even  worldly  and  fruitless  professor  of  religion,  does  more 
injury  to  the  true  cause  of  the  Redeemer,  than  many  open 
reprobates.  And  yet,  alas !  are  there  none  such  among  us  ? 
Are  there  none  who,  holding  all  the  great  and  saving  truths 
of  the  Gospel  with  the  most  perfect  accuracy,  may  yet  de- 
rive many  a  lesson  of  amiability,  and  disinterestedness,  and 
humility,  and  brotherly  kindness,  and  affectionate  forbearance, 
from  some  who  are  not  yet  known  to  be  partakers  of  the 
"  grace  of  Christ  ?"  Are  there  none  who  would  find  it  diffi- 
cult, in  looking  back  upon  the  week  which  has  just  closed 
upon  us,  to  distinguish  a  single  "  good  work" — a  single  fruit 
of  faith,  laid  as  a  thank-offering  upon  the  altar  of  their  God  ? 
Surely  these  things  ought  not  so  to  be ;  for  is  it  not  thus, 
that  we  cause  the  way  of  truth  to  be  evil  spoken  of,  "  the 
name  of  God  to  be  blasphemed,"*  the  Saviour  to  be  "  wounded 
in  the  house  of  his  friends,"!  and  the  preaching  of  the  ever- 
lasting Gospel,  with  its  one  great  truth,  "justification  by 
faith  only"  to  be  treated  by  the  ignorant,  or  the  malevolent, 
as  an  unholy  and  licentious  fable  ? 

If  therefore  you  love  "  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus  ;"J  if  you 
love  the  Saviour  who  proclaimed  it;  if  you  love  your  own 
souls,  and  your  own  eternity,  be  constant  in  well-doing ; 
whether  it  be  to  spiritual  duties,  or  to  temporal  duties,  that 
the  occasion  calls  you,  be  first  and  foremost  in  them  all, 
"  doing  whatsoever  your  hand  findeth  to  do  with  your  might,"§ 

*  Rom.  ii.  24  ;  Titus  ii.  5,  t  Zech.  xiii.  6. 

t  Eph.  iv.  21.  $  Eccles.  ix.  10. 


60  DISCOURSE    V. 

"  letting  your  light  so  shine  before  men,  that  they  may  see 
your  good  works,  and  glorify  your  Father  which  Is  in  hea- 
ven"*— "  being  filled  with  the  fruits  of  righteousness  which 
are  by  Jesus  Christ,  unto  the  glory  and  praise  of  God."t 


DISCOURSE   V. 

ACTS  iv.  part  of  verse  12. 

There  is  none  other  name  under  heaven  given  among  men,  whereby  we 
must  be  saved. 

HAVING  on  the  last  occasion  of  addressing  you,  considered 
the  three  Articles,  viz.,  twelfth,  thirteenth,  and  fourteenth, 
which  treat  of  "  Good  Works,"  it  is  my  intention  to-day,  to 
bring  before  you  the  three  Articles,  viz.,  fifteenth,  sixteenth, 
and  eighteenth,  which  treat  upon  the  important  subjects  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  of  Sin.  The  two  of  these,  which 
will  form  the  first  subjects  of  our  observations  this  morning, 
are  the  fifteenth  and  the  eighteenth. 

XV.     Of  Christ  alone  without  sin. 

"  Christ,  in  the  truth  of  our  nature,  was  made  like  unto 
us  in  all  things,  sin  only  excepted,  from  which  He  was 
clearly  void,  both  in  his  flesh  and  in  his  spirit," 

That  this  commencement  of  the  Article  is  founded  entirely 
upon  the  declarations  of  God's  Word,  will  be  immediately 
apparent  from  these  well-known  passages  of  Scripture : 
"  Forasmuch  as  the  children  are  partakers  of  the  flesh  and 
blood,  he  also  himself  likewise  took  part  of  the  same/' 
Therefore  was  our  Lord  certainly  made  like  us  "in  the  truth" 
or  the  reality  "  of  our  nature. "J  That  he  was  void  of  sin, 

*  Matt.  v.  16.  t  Phil.  i.  11.  t  Heb.  ii.  14. 


ARTICLES     XV.    XVI.    XVIII.  61 

"  both  in  his  flesh  and  in  his  spirit,"  is  equally  apparent  from 
these  declarations, — "  In  all  points  tempted  like  as  we  are, 
not  without  sin."*  "  The  prince  of  this  world,"  Satan, 
"  cometh,  and  hath  nothing  in  me,"t  "  He  did  no  sin,  neither 
was  guile  found  in  his  mouth  ;"J  and  many  other  passages 
which  are  familiar  to  us  all. 

It  is  impossible  to  read  these  valuable  documents  of  our 
church  without  being  continually  struck  with  that  providen- 
tial direction,  by  which  their  compilers  were  led  to  controvert 
ancient  heresies,  by  asserting  the  true  and  scriptural  views  of 
all  these  important  subjects,  and  thus  to  correct  by  anticipa- 
tion, those  errors  which  should  in  after  ages  spring  up,  to 
delude  and  deceive  the  people  of  God.  We  have  in  this  first 
sentence,  the  distinct  opinion  of  the  holy  men  of  our  church, 
not  only  upon  one  of  the  errors  of  Socinus,  that  Christ  was 
peccable,  but  also  upon  that  modern  revival  of  the  heresy  of 
Nestorius,  which,  by  asserting  that  the  nature  of  our  blessed 
Lord  was  a  "  fallen  nature,"  and  his  flesh  "sinful  flesh,"  ap- 
plies language  to  the  flesh  of  Christ,  which  even  they  would 
not  apply  to  Christ  himself,  thus  making  two  persons  in 
Christ,  which  was  the  very  essence  of  Nestorianism,  opening 
at  once  the  floodgates  to  those  low  and  unworthy  views  of 
the  Saviour  of  the  world,  which  are  as  much  at  variance  with 
the  express  declarations  of  his  eternal  Godhead,  as  they  are 
opposed  to  the  leading  doctrines  of  Christianity,  his  "  perfect 
sacrifice,"  and  perfect  manhood. 

For  as  the  Article  before  us  truly  adds,  "  He  came  to  be 
the  Lamb  without  spot, 'who  by  sacrifice  of  himself  once 
made,  should  take  away  the  sins  of  the  world,  and  sin,  as 
St.  John  saith,  was  not  in  him."§  If,  therefore,  our  Lord 
had  had  only  a  fallen  nature  to  offer,  instead  of  being  "  the 
Lamb  without  spot,"[]  his  would  have  been  a  blemished  sacri- 
fice, and  he  would  himself  have  needed  that  with  which  no 


*  Heb.  iv.  15.  t  John  xiv.  30.  t  1  Pet.  ii.  22. 

$  1  John  iii.  5.  ||  1  Pet.  i.  19. 


62  D  I  S  C  O  U  R  S  E    V. 

other  being  throughout  the  universe  could  have  supplied  him, 
a  perfect  offering  to  satisfy  the  justice  of  God. 

"But  all  we  the  rest,"  continues  the  Article,  "although 
baptized,  and  born  again  in  Christ,  yet  offend  in  many  things, 
and  if  we  say  we  have  no  sin,  we  deceive  ourselves,  and  the 
truth  is  not  in  us."* 

What  has  been  already  remarked  respecting  the  former 
clause  of  the  Article,  is  equally  true  with  regard  to  this.  It 
was  originally  levelled  against  the  Pelagians,  who  maintained 
that  "  persons  after  baptism  might  live  without  sjn,"  and  in 
this  they  were  countenanced  by  some  of  the  Anabaptists  of 
former  days,  and  are,  we  fear,  even  now  followed  by  some 
sectaries  at  the  present  day. 

It  is  perhaps  vain  to  have  recourse  to  argument  to  convince 
those,  whom  the  daily  experience  of  their  own  hearts  and 
lives  leaves  unconvinced  ;  or  else  we  might  remind  them  of 
the  irresistible  testimony  afforded  by  that  form  of  daily  prayer 
which  probably  none  among  them  habitually  neglect,  "  For- 
give us  our  trespasses."  Whence  can  come  the  daily  need 
of  such  a  petition,  directed  by  our  Lord  himself,  and  adopted 
in  every  age  by  the  holiest  people  of  God,  if  there  can  be  a 
state  in  which  the  believer  while  on  earth  lives  free  from  daily 
sin  ?  Surely  the  more  devoted,  the  more  consistent,  the  more 
closely  we  are  enabled  by  God's  grace  to  walk  in  the  command- 
ments and  laws  of  our  heavenly  Father,  the  more  sensible 
will  the  heart  become,  of  every,  the  slightest,  deviation  from 
those  laws.  While  the  indifferent  or  the  formalist  will  pass 
through  days,  and  weeks,  and  months,  without  experiencing, 
perhaps,  one  reproachful  feeling,  one  distressful  consciousness 
lhat  he  has  deviated  from  the  strait  and  narrow  path,  the 
renewed  child  of  God  will  never  lay  his  head  in  peace  upon 
his  pillow,  until  he  has  sought  and  found  forgiveness  through 
the  blood  of  Christ,  for  the  numberless  sins  of  omission  and 
of  commission  which  if  unforgiven,  each  day,  as  it  passes  away 

*  1  John  i.  8. 


ARTICLES    XV.    XVI.    XVIII.  63 

for  ever,  carries  up  with  it  to  the  throne  of  the  Eternal,  and 
registers  in  the  book  of  God's  remembrance. 

Having  thus  borne  its  true  and  scriptural  testimony  to  the 
sinlessness  of  Christ  and  the  sinfulness  of  man,  the  church 
in  the  eighteenth  Article  continues  thus : 

XVIII.   Of  obtaining  eternal  salvation  only  by  the  name  of 
Christ. 

"  They  also  are  to  be  had  accursed  that  presume  to  say, 
that  every  man  shall  be  saved  by  the  law  or  sect  which  he 
professeth,  so  that  he  be  diligent  to  frame  his  life  according 
to  that  law,  and  the  light  of  nature.  For  Holy  Scripture 
doth  set  out  unto  us  only  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ,  whereby 
men  must  be  saved." 

In  these  days  of  spurious  liberality,  it  is  not  surprising 
that  this  Article,  misunderstood  as  it  so  frequently  is,  should 
have  been  so  widely  reprobated.  It  has  been  publicly  as- 
serted, and  upon  the  authority  of  the  Article  before  us,  that 
the  church  of  England  is  as  intolerant  as  the  church  of  Rome, 
and  condemns  all  to  perdition  who  do  not  hold  the  truths  of 
God's  word  precisely  as  she  herself  holds  them.  Nothing, 
as  we  shall  see  in  the  sequel,  can  be  more  unjust,  or  more 
untrue ;  still  we  are  well  aware,  that,  explain  it  as  we  may, 
there  will  always  be  much  in  the  great  truth  contained  in  the 
Article,  which  will  be  hostile  to  the  feelings  of  the  natural 
heart.  So  long  as  the  sentiment  of  the  well-known  distich 
retains  its  popularity  in  the  world, 

"  For  modes  of  faith  let  graceless  zealots  fight. 
His  can't  be  wrong  whose  life  is  in  the  right.' 

the  multitude  will  always  be  opposed  to  the  great  Scriptural 
doctrine,  of  the  Article  before  us.  This,  however,  will  in  no 
degree  influence  the  true  Christian  ;  his  inquiry  will  never  be, 
what  is  the  opinion  of  the  world,  upon  any  point  connected 
with  his  duty  to  God :  it  will  be  simply  this,  "  What  saith 


64  DISCOURSE     V. 

the  Lord  ?  Is  the  voice  of  my  church,  upon  this  subject,  in 
accordance  with  the  voice  of  my  God?  If  it  be,  let  those 
reject  the  voice  who  have  already  rejected  the  speaker,  but 
let  the  language  of  my  heart  always  be,  '  Speak,  Lord,  for 
thy  servant  heareth.'  "*  Thus,  then,  saith  the  Lord,  "  This 
is  the  stone  which  was  set  at  nought  of  you  builders,  which 
is  become  the  head  of  the  corner.  Neither  is  there  salvation 
in  any  other ;  for  there  is  none  other  name  under  heaven 
given  among  men  whereby  we  must  be  saved. "t  And  again, 
"  He  that  hath  the  Son  hath  life,  and  he  that  hath  not  the 
Son  of  God  hath  not  life. "if  "  He  that  believeth  not,  is  con- 
demned already,  because  he  hath  not  believed  in  the  name  of 
the  only-begotten  Son  of  God."§ 

This,  then,  at  once  strikes  at  the  root  of  all  that  false,  and 
hollow  affectation  of  liberality,  which  would  encourage  the 
natural  heart  of  man  in  its  pride,  and  obstinacy,  by  teaching 
that  whatever  be  "  the  law"  which  we  follow,  or  "  the  sect" 
to  which  we  belong,  if  we  but  "  be  diligent  to  frame  our  lives 
according  to  that  law,"  all  will  be  well.  This  assures  us 
upon  the  authority  of  God  himself,  that  so  far  from  man  not 
being  accountable  for  his  religious  creed,  and  consequently 
not  punishable  for  its  defect,  so  far  from  that  man's  faith  being 
necessarily  right,  whose  life  is  not  pronounced  to  be  wrong, 
by  the  world  around  him,  that  every  man  to  whom  the  Gos 
pel  has  ever  been  proposed,  or  who,  from  providential  cir- 
cumstances, might,  had  he  so  pleased,  have  become  acquainted 
with  it,  shall  most  assuredly,  if  he  have  not  found  pardon, 
and  peace  with  God,  through  the  name  of  Jesus,  and  through 
that  alone,  be  in  the  end  a  cast-away,  We  well  know  how 
unpalatable  such  a  truth  as  this  must  be,  to  every  individual 
who  is  endeavouring  to  build  himself  up  in  the  false  and  futile 
expectation,  that  what  he  considers  a  good  life,  or  sincerity 
in  the  creed  which  he  professes,  although  that  creed  exclude 

*  1  Sam,  iii.  9.  t  Acts  iv.  11,  12. 

t  1  John  v.l  2.  *  John  iii.  18. 


ARTICLES    XV.    XVI.    XVIII.  65 

all  the  peculiar  doctrines  of  the  Gospel,  even  to  the  divinity 
or  atonement  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  shall  at  the  last  great  day 
be  found  sufficient.  But  we  dare  not  conceal,  we  dare  not 
modify  even  the  terms  in  which  God  himself,  in  the  person 
of  the  only  begotten  Son,  has  pronounced  this  affecting,  this 
vital  truth.  He  has  said  it,  and  one  jot,  or  one  tittle  of  His 
Word,  shall  by  no  means  pass  away  till  all  be  fulfilled  ;  "  He 
that  believeth,  and  is  baptized,  shall  be  saved;  but  he  that 
believeth  not  shall  be  damned,"*  This  is  the  sentence  of 
Him  who  was  love  itself,  and  shall  man  affect  to  be  more 
charitable  than  his  Maker  ?  Shall  man,  for  the  sake  of  not 
inflicting  a  moment's  pain,  or  of  not  giving  lasting  offence  to 
his  fellow-sinners,  presume  to  alter  the  terms  of  such  a  mes- 
sage, and  say,  that  any  thing  short  of  a  full  and  entire  recog- 
nition of  the  great  truths,  of  the  Gospel,  a  full  and  complete 
dependence  upon  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  upon  him  alone, 
will  be  sufficient  for  the  salvation  of  a  soul  ?  No,  brethren, 
we  dare  not  do  it ;  better  to  plant  a  sting  in  every  heart  be- 
fore us  at  this  moment,  which  has  not  yet  made  its  peace  with 
God  through  the  only  Saviour;  better  to  be  convicted  by  a 
world's  unanimous  sentence,  of  bigotry,  of  superstition,  of 
uncharitableness,  of  illiberality,  and  an  utter  ignorance  of  all 
that  man,  in  the  vain  pride  of  his  intellect,  thinks  worthy  of 
his  attainments  ;  yes,  better  far  to  be  treated,  as  the  Apostles 
before  us  were,  as  "  the  offscouring  of  all  things,"!  than  by 
concealing,  or  modifying  this  awful  truth,  to  leave  you  un- 
disturbed in  your  error,  and  your  self-complacency,  until  the 
last  great  day  shall  undeceive  you.  We  repeat,  then,  and  we 
pray,  that  while  repeating  it,  the  Spirit  of  God  may  so  stamp 
it  upon  your  souls,  that  the  ceaseless  flow  of  time  taay  have 
no  power  to  efface,  and  to  obliberate  it ;  that  they  "  are  to 
be  had  accursed,"  who  presume  to  tell  you  that  your  sincerity, 
or  your  ignorance,  or  your  wisdom,  or  your  imaginary  holi- 
ness (for  real  holiness  out  of  Christ  there  can  be  none,)  will 

*  Mark  xvi.  16.  t  1  Cor.  iv.  13. 


66  DISCOURSE     V. 

avail  to  save  you,  so  that  you  "be  but  diligent  to  frame  your 
life,"  according  to  what  you  imagine  to  be  God's  law,  and 
the  light  of  nature ;  Christ,  and  Christ  alone,  "  is  the  way, 
the  truth,  and  the  life ;  no  man  cometh  unto  the  Father  but 
by  Him."*  In  Him,  you  are,  as  we  have  already  seen, 
"justified  by  faith,"  and  at  "  peace  with  God  ;"t  out  of  Him, 
and  all  virtues,  all  obedience,  all  rectitude  of  moral  conduct, 
are,  as  regards  your  soul's  salvation,  literally  nothing  worth  ; 
you  are  exposed,  helpless,  destitute,  and  forlorn,  to  the 
avenging  tempest  of  the  wrath  of  God,  "  a  fiery  deluge  and 
without  an  ark." 

Here  then  would  we,  as  Christian  ministers,  take  our  stand. 
All  other  points  are  comparatively  trifling,  but  this,  this  indeed 
is  vital.  Upon  this,  we  would  urge  you,  we  would  pray  for 
you,  we  would  entreat  you,  we  would  run  every  risk,  even 
to  the  offending  you,  and  wearying  you,  and  driving  you  from 
us,  rather  than  at  the  great  day  you  should  be  enabled  to  say, 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  was  never  clearly  proposed  to  me  as 
the  only  Saviour  of  my  soul :  I  heard  of  Him  as  the  world 
hears  of  Him,  but  never  as  my  only  hope  and  my  only  safety. 
Are  there  then,  any  of  you,  in  a  single  person  among  you 
destitute  of  this  hope,  this  safety,  this  refuge  ?  Is  there  one 
who  is  experimentally  ignorant,  that  "  there  is  none  other 
name  under  heaven  given  among  men,  whereby  we  must  be 
saved  ?"  To  that  one  we  would  say,  this  day  the  Lord 
waiteth  to  be  gracious,  this  day  He  freely  offers  to  you  pardon 
and  peace.  He  "stretches  forth  His  hands'^  (it  is  God's 
own  metaphor)  to  receive  you  to  Himself,  only  cast  your- 
self fully  and  unreservedly  upon  Him,  commit  your  soul  to 
Him  as  unto  a  gracious  Creator,  and  His  blood  shall  cleanse, 
His  righteousness  justify,  and  His  promised  Spirit  renew, 
and  sanctify  your  soul.  Yours  shall  be  on  earth,  the  privi- 
leges of  the  children  of  God,  and  in  heaven,  an  abundant  en- 
trance into  their  Father's  mansion. 

*  John  xiv.  6.       t  Rom.  v.  1.       t  Rom.  x.  21;  Isa.  v.  25,  &c. 


ARTICLES    XV.    XVI.    XVIII.  67 

There  is  yet  one  other  subject,  but  purely  a  speculative 
one,  connected  with  this  Article,  upon  which,  perhaps  it  may 
be  expected  that  we  should  touch.  If  the  words  of  our 
church  be  literally  true,  that  it  is  an  accursed  thing  to  say, 
that  any  man  shall  be  saved  "  by  the  law  or  sect  which  he 
professeth,"  then  what  opinion  must  be  given  upon  the  state 
of  the  heathen  world  ?  There  are,  as  it  is  supposed,  upwards 
of  six  hundred  millions  of  immortal  souls  at  the  present  mo- 
ment, living  upon  the  earth  in  utter  ignorance  of  that  holy 
name,  "  whereby  men  must  be  saved."  Every  century, 
therefore,  more,  probably,  than  eighteen  hundred  millions  of 
persons,  are  passing  to  their  long  and  last  account,  having  no 
hope,  and  without  God  in  the  world."*  What  opinion  are 
we  to  give  respecting  their  final  state  ?  It  might  be  sufficient 
to  repeat  our  Lord's  own  answer  when  subjected  to  a  very 
similar  inquiry,  "  Lord,  are  there  few  that  shall  be  saved  ?" 
And  Jesus  answered,  "  strive  to  enter  in  at  the  strait  gate."t 
But  as  our  church  has  been  supposed  by  some  to  have  over- 
stepped her  accustomed  prudence,  and  to  speak  plainly, 
where  God  has  intended  to  speak  obscurely,  a  few  moments 
will  not  be  missapplied,  in  the  consideration  of  the  passage 
in  question.  And  here,  although  in  so  saying  we  shall  differ 
from  many  with  whom  we  usually  agree,  we  cannot  but  con- 
fess that  Bishop  Burnet's  interpretation  of  that  portion  of  the 
Article  which  refers  to  those  to  whom  the  Christian  religion 
has  never  been  revealed,  appears  to  us  a  very  sound  and  cor- 
rect one,  viz.,  that  there  is  a  great  difference  to  be  observed 
between  the  words,  *  saved  by  the  law,'  and  saved  '  in  the 
law  :'f  the  one  condemned,  but  not  the  other.  To  be  saved 
by  a  law  or  sect,  signifies  that  by  the  virtue  of  that  law  or 

*  Ephes.  ii.  12.  t  Luke  xiii.  23,  24. 

T  "We  are  aware  that  in  the  Latin  copy  of  the  Article  it  is  expressed, 
"  in  lege  aut  secta;"  but  as  the  English  and  Latin  Articles  are  of  equal 
authority,  it  is  clear  that  the  compilers  never  intended  by  the  Latin  phrase 
to  express  "  in  the  law  or  sect ;"  for  had  they  done  so,  they  would  most 
certainly  so  have  rendered  it  in  the  English  copy. — Author. 


68  DISCOURSE    V. 

sect  such  men  who  follow  it  may  be  saved  ;  whereas  to  be 
saved  in  a  law  or  sect,  imports  only  that  God  may  extend  his 
compassions  to  men  that  are  engaged  in  false  religions.  The 
former  only  is  condemned  by  this  Article,  which  affirms 
nothing  concerning  the  other."*  Of  this  we  are  quite  certain, 
because  God  himself  has  pronounced  it,  that  "  there  is  none 
other  name,"  but  the  name  of  Christ,  by  which  men  can  be 
saved  ;"  therefore  we  must  be  most  careful,  that  while  we  do 
not  draw  a  single  inference  which  shall  increase  the  severity 
of  God  beyond  what  Scripture  has  distinctly  revealed  con- 
cerning it,  so  neither  must  we  increase  the  mercy  of  God,  so 
that  it  shall  interfere  with  his  justice  or  his  truth  :  we  can 
therefore  only  say,  that  all  who  shall  be  saved  must  be  saved 
by  Christ;  but  whether  his  atoning  blood  may  not  be  effica- 
cious, for  the  remission  of  the  sins  of  those,  who  have  never 
had  the  opportunity  of  acquiring  a  knowledge  of  his  sacrifice, 
whether  his  name  may  not  be  "  a  savour  of  life  unto  life,"t 
to  some  who,  having  never  heard  it,  can  never  have  called 
upon  that  blessed  name,  it  is  not  for  man  to  determine,  al- 
though it  is  nowhere  forbidden  man  to  hope  and  to  believe  it. 
Our  church  has  wisely  expressed  no  opinion  upon  this  most 
difficult  point,  and  we  would  imitate  her  prudence,  resting 
our  hopes  of  the  salvation  of  these  benighted  souls,  upon  our 
knowledge  of  the  character  of  that  God  with  whom  we  have 
to  do,  and  the  infinite  love  and  "  unsearchable  riches  of 
Christ  ;"J  and  resting  our  certainty,  that  they  shall  receive 
justice  at  the  hand  of  God,  upon  that  express  declaration  of 
his  own  unerring  word,  "  There  is  no  respect  of  persons  with 
God.  For  as  many  as  have  sinned  without  law,  shall  also 
perish  without  law  :  and  as  many  as  have  sinned  in  the  law, 
shall  be  judged  by  the  law  ;  (for  not  the  hearers  of  the  law 
are  just  before  God,  but  the  doers  of  the  law  shall  be  justified. 
For  when  the  Gentiles,  which  have  not  the  law,  do  by  nature, 

*  Bishop  Burnet,  p.  240,  8vo.  Oxford,  1814. 

t  2  Cor.  ii.  16.  t  Ephes.  iii.  8. 


ARTICLES     XV.    XVI.    XVIII.  69 

the  things  contained  in  the  law,  these,  having  not  the  law, 
are  a  law  unto  themselves  :  which  show  the  work  of  the  law 
written  in  their  hearts,  their  conscience  also  bearing  witness, 
and  their  thoughts  the  mean  while  accusing,  or  else  excusing 
one  another ;)  in  the  day  when  God  shall  judge  the  secrets 
of  men  by  Jesus  Christ  according  to  my  Gospel."*  That  the 
heathen,  then,  can  be  saved,  may,  we  think,  be  believed, 
without  impugning  a  single  word  of  the  written  testimony  of 
our  God — that  they  shall  be  saved,  the  last  day  only  can  de- 
termine. 

There  yet  remains  the  third  of  those  Articles,  which  we 
proposed  to  consider  this  morning,  upon  which  to  offer  a  few 
brief  observations  :  it  is  the  sixteenth  and  entitled,  - 

XVI.  Of  sin  after  Baptism. 

"  Not  every  deadly  sin,  willingly  committed  after  baptism, 
is  sin  against  the  Holy  Ghost  and  unpardonable.  Wherefore 
the  grant  of  repentance  is  not  to  be  denied  to  such  as  fall  into 
sin  after  baptism." 

Having,  on  a  former  occasion,  spoken  at  length,  upon  the 
"  sin  against  the  Holy  Ghost,"t  it  will  here  be  only  necessary 
to  remark,  that  the  object  of  this  portion  of  the  Article  is  to 
show,  in  opposition  to  those  schismatics  who  were  called 
Novatians,  that  repentance  may  be  sought,  and  found,  even 
by  those  who,  after  having  been  united  by  baptism  to  the 
church  of  the  Redeemer,  and  renewed  in  the  Spirit  of  their 
mind,  have  fallen  into  wilful  sin.  The  error  in  the  ancient 
church  upon  this  point,  was,  that  no  sin  committed  after  bap- 
tism could  obtain  pardon;  and  the  consequence  was,  as  is 
invariably  the  case,  that  error  in  theory,  led  to  error  in  prac- 
tice ;  that  many,  and  among  them  was  the  Emperor  Constan- 
tine,  delayed  their  baptism  until  the  hour  of  death,  probably 

*  Rom.  ii.  11—16. 

t  In  (he  lectures  on  the  History  of  Christ,  part  2,  Lecture  IV. 


70  DISCOURSE    V. 

that  they  might  escape  the  possibility  of  falling  away.  All 
Scripture,  however,  controverts  this  error ;  vain  would  be 
that  petition  of  the  Lord's  prayer  to  which  we  have  before 
alluded  if  forgiveness  were  withheld  from  persons  sinning 
after  baptism.  While  the  opinion  of  the  Apostolical  church 
on  this  subject,  may  be  very  conclusively  gathered,  from  this 
declaration  of  St.  Paul  to  the  Galations,  "  If  any  one  is  over- 
taken in  a  fault,  ye  which  are  spiritual,  restore  such  a  one  in 
the  spirit  of  meekness,  considering  thyself,  lest  thou  also  be 
tempted."  Showing  at  once,  that  throughout  the  whole 
church  of  Christ,  even  they  who  "  are  spiritual"  and  there- 
fore certainly,  all  may  be  tempted,  and  all  may  fall  into  sin, 
and  all  may  be  renewed  again  unto  repentance. 

The  Article  continues,  "  After  we  have  received  the  Holy 
Ghost,  we  may  depart  from  grace  given,  and  fall  into  sin,  and 
by  the  grace  of  God  we  may  arise  again  and  amend  our 
lives.  And  therefore  they  are  to  be  condemned,  which  say, 
they  can  no  more  sin  as  long  as  they  live  here,  or  deny  the 
place  of  forgiveness  to  such  as  truly  repent." 

With  what  remarkable  prudence,  does  our  church  here 
speak,  upon  one  of  those  weighty  and  mysterious  subjects, 
which  have  so  long  divided  the  body  of  Christ.  She  does  not 
say,  as  doubtless  many  of  her  followers  would  have  desired 
her  to  say,  "  We  may  depart  from  grace  given  and  fall  into 
sin,  but,  by  the  grace  of  God,  we  must  arise  again  and  amend 
our  lives  ;"  she  contents  herself  with  affirming,  "  we  may 
arise  again  and  amend  our  lives,"  thus  leaving  the  contested 
subject  of  "final  perseverance"  untouched  neither  contra- 
dicted, nor  affirmed.  Of  all  the  high,  and  mysterious  doctrines 
of  salvation,  there  appears  to  be  none,  upon  which  the  Word 
of  God  has  spoken  so  little  authoritatively  as  upon  this  sub- 
ject. Well,  therefore,  would  it  be  for  us  all  to  imitate  the 
wisdom  of  holy  Scripture,  and  the  modesty  of  our  church, 
upon  points  of  such  extreme,  and  inscrutable  difficulty.  The 
practical  view  is  the  only  view,  which  is  essential  to  the  well- 
being  of  our  souls,  and  therefore  the  only  one  which  we 


ARTICLES     XV.    XVI.    XVIII.  71 

should  be  anxious  that  all  should  receive,  as  the  undoubted 
truth  of  God ;  and  the  practical  view  is  this,  that  the  grace 
of  God  is  continually  extended  over  us,  that  it  \vill  never  be 
withdrawn  by  God  from  any  one  of  His  believing  and  obey- 
ing people;  but,  that  "we  may  depart  from  grace  given," 
and  that  if  by  the  prevalence  of  powerful  temptation,  we  are 
led  to  deviate  from  the  strait  and  narrow  path,  God's  grace 
is  still  within  our  reach,  and  will,  if  sought,  enable  us  to 
"  arise  again  and  amend  our  lives,"  and  regain  our  footing 
on  the  heavenward  path.  More  than  this,  brethren,  we  do 
not  feel  it  necessary  to  say.  It  is  unquestionably  true,  that 
"  He  which  hath  begun  a  good  work  in  you,  will  perform  it 
until  the  day  of  Jesus  Christ;"*  but  it  is  equally  true  that, 
as  Hooker  well  expresses  it,  "  To  our  own  safety,  our  own 
sedulity  is  required."  To  our  own  ultimate  perseverance 
in  grace,  therefore,  our  own  constant  endeavours,  after  holi- 
ness must  be  most  closely  allied  ;  and  wretched  indeed  will  be 
the  fate  of  those,  who  are  driven  to  seek  for  comfort  on  a 
dying  bed,  as  he,  of  old,  who  asked  his  chaplain,  "  Can  they 
who  have  been  once  elect  fall  from  grace  ?"  and  upon  being 
answered  in  the  negative,  then  took  courage,  from  the  con- 
viction that  he  had  once  been  among  that  happy  number. 
Building  up  their  spiritual  house,  not  on  the  only  true  foun- 
dation, not  upon  a  present  dependence  upon  the  love,  and 
sacrifice,  and  righteousness  of  a  crucified  Redeemer,  but  upon 
some  mysterious,  or  imaginary  transaction,  between  God,  and 
their  souls,  the  sanctifying  effects  of  which  have  long  since 
passed  away  for  ever.  No,  my  beloved  brethren,  while  you 
remember  for  your  comfort  and  encouragement,  that  "  the 
foundation  of  God  standeth  sure,  having  this  seal,  The  Lord 
knoweth  them  that  are  His  ;"t  never  forget  that  this  seal  of 
your  Christian  character  has  two  sides,  and  that  if  that  be 
engraven  on  the  one,  we  have  the  same  Divine  authority  for 


Phil.  i.  6.  t  2  Tim.  ii.  19. 


72  DISCOURSE    VI. 

knowing  that  this  is  inscribed  upon  the  other,  "  Let  every  one 
that  nameth  the  name  of  Christ  depart  from  iniquity." 

Let  me  then  urge  you,  brethren,  "  by  the  mercies  of  God,"* 
to  fear  sin,  all  sin,  even  the  least  sin,  as  a  "  deadly"  evil,t  as 
that  which  alone  can  cast  both  soul  and  body  into  hell. 
"  Watch  and  pray  lest  ye  enter  into  temptation,";]:  knowing 
that  as  the  smallest  aperture  is  sufficient  to  sink  the  largest 
vessel,  so  also  the  smallest  sin  allowed  in  the  soul,  will  make 
an  opening,  through  which  every  wave  of  corruption  will 
flow  in,  until,  unless  the  grace  of  God  be  miraculously  exerted 
in  your  behalf,  all  will  be  lost.  While  therefore  you  live  in 
the  fullest  reliance  upon  the  promises  of  God,  the  fullest  en- 
joyment of  your  privileges,  live  also  in  the  daily,  hourly 
waiting  upon  a  throne  of  grace,  for  strength  to  serve  God 
acceptably,  with  reverence,  and  godly  fear ;  knowing  that 
He  who  is  a  sun  and  shield  to  His  people,  is,  to  every  evil- 
doer, whatever  his  profession  of  service,  "  a  consuming 
fire."§ 


DISCOURSE    VI. 

2  PETER  i.  part  ver.  10 
Give  diligence  to  make  your  calling  and  election  sure. 

WE  arrive  this  morning  at  the  seventeenth  Article  of  our 
church  ;  an  Article  upon  which  the  compilers  appear  to  have 
bestowed  more  minute  attention,  and  to  have  exercised,  if 
possible,  a  greater  degree  of  thoughtful  ness  and  care,  and  to 
have  been  assisted  with  wisdom  from  on  high,  even  in  a  more 
signal  manner,  than  in  any  other,  which  they  have  handed 
down  to  us.  Well  have  they  said,  that  "  the  godly  considera- 

*  Rom.  xii.  1.  t  Matt.  x.  28. 

t  Matt.  xxvi.  41.  $  Deut.  iv.  24,  and  Heb.  xii.  29. 


ARTICLE    XVI  I.  73 

tion"  of  the  sublime  subjects  it  contains,  "  is  full  of  sweet, 
pleasant,  and  unspeakable  comfort ;"  but  wisely  have  they 
added,  that  it  is  so  only,  "  to  godly  persons,  and  such  as  feel 
in  themselves  the  working  of  the  Spirit  of  Christ,  mortifying 
the  works  of  the  flesh,  and  their  earthly  members,  and  draw- 
ing up  their  minds  to  high,  and  heavenly  things."  May  the 
spirit  of  God  render  our  consideration  of  these  high  mysteries, 
"  a  godly  consideration ;"  not  suffering  us  to  intrude  into 
"  the  secret  things,  which  belong  to  the  Lord  our  God,"  or  to 
attempt  to  explain  what  God  has  hidden,  or  to  presume  to 
speak  dogmatically,  or  confidently,  upon  subjects  which  shall 
never  be  made  clear  to  us  here  below  ;  but  may  He  bestow 
upon  us  the  wisdom,  to  take  a  simple,  and  scriptural,  a  chari- 
table, and  practical  view  of  a  question,  upon  which  it  is  in 
vain  to  hope,  that  even  true  Christians  shall  perfectly  agree, 
until  they  arrive  at  that  blessed  place,  into  which  neither  mis- 
conception, nor  controversy  shall  enter,  but  where  all  shall  be 
union,  and  harmony,  and  peace. 

I  shall,  as  on  former  occasions,  confine  myself  simply  to 
the  declarations  of  the  Article  before  us,  which  are  of  them- 
selves, fully  sufficient  to  occupy  our  attention,  without  enter- 
ing into  the  immeasurable  fields  of  this  vast  subject  that  lie 
beyond. 

XVII.     Of  Predestination  and  Election. 

"  Predestination  to  life  is  the  everlasting  purpose  of  God, 
whereby  (before  the  foundations  of  the  world  were  laid)  he 
hath  constantly  decreed  by  His  counsel,  secret  to  us,  to  de- 
liver from  curse  and  damnation  those  whom  he  hath  chosen 
in  Christ  out  of  mankind,  and  to  bring  them  by  Christ  to 
everlasting  salvation,  as  vessels  made  to  honour." 

It  is  impossible  for  any  person  of  common  attention  to  read 
the  Word  of  God,  without  discovering  that  throughout  the 
pages  both  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament,  the  Almighty  is 
represented  as  taking  a  more  immediate,  and  intimate  interest 

7 


74  x  DISCOURSE     VI. 

in  the  affairs  of  men,  than  merely  foreknowing,  and  superin- 
tending them.  God  is  spoken  of,  in  fact,  as  interfering  from 
time  to  time  in  the  appointment  and  choice  of  human  instru- 
ments, as  well  as  in  ruling,  and  overruling  all.  This  Divine 
appointment  or  choice  occurs,  indeed,  so  frequently  in  Holy 
Writ,  that  it  cannot  be  overlooked,  and  it  may  tend  to  the 
better  understanding  of  the  declaration  of  our, church,  if  we 
shortly  examine  the  different  senses  in  which  the  term  is  em- 
ployed, that  we  may  discover  with  what  intention  our  church 
has  applied  it  in  the  Article  before  us. 

First,  then,  we  find  the  term  choosing  adopted  in  various 
portions  of  the  Divine  word,  with  reference  to  certain  offices, 
or  employments,  to  which  individuals  were  in  some  especial 
manner,  chosen  or  elected  of  God.  Such,  for  instance,  was 
the  case  of  Saul,  the  first  king  of  Israel,  of  whom  we  find  the 
prophet  Samuel  asserting  in  the  presence  of  all  the  people, 
'*  See  ye  him  whom  the  Lord  hath  chosen."*  So  again  with 
reference  to  the  twelve  Apostles,  "  Jesus  answered  them, 
Have  not  I  chosen  you  twelve  ?" 

Again,  we  find  choice,  or  election,  spoken  of  with  reference 
to  national  advantages,  and  national  privileges,  of  which  many 
examples  might  be  adduced.  For  instance,  with  regard  to  the 
children  of  Israel,  we  read  in  Deut.  vii.  6,  '*  The  Lord  thy 
God  hath  chosen  thee  to  be  a  special  people  unto  himself;" 
and  again  in  Isaiah  Ixv.  9,  speaking  of  the  same  people,  we 
find  the  Almighty  saying,  "  Mine  elect  shall  inherit  it ;"  and 
again,  verse  22,  "  Mine  elect  shall  long  enjoy  the  work  of 
their  hands."  While  Su  Peter  adopts  the  same  method  of 
speaking  of  the  Christian  church,  as  a  body,  the  visible  church 
of  Christ,  as  having  been  elected  into  the  same  place  of  spi 
ritual  privileges,  and  spiritual  advantages,  from  which  the 
Jews  had  by  transgression  fallen,  when  he  says,  "  Ye  are  a 
chosen  generation,  a  royal  priesthood,  a  holy  nation,  a  pecu- 
liar people." 

*  1  Sam.  x.  24. 


ARTICLE    XVI  I.  75 

Thus  far,  probably,  no  one  will  demur  to  the  explanation, 
which  has  been  offered  ;  but  there  is  still  a  third  sense,  in 
which  the  same  phrases  of  electing  or  choosing  appear  to  be 
employed  in  Holy  Writ ;  and  this  is  election,  not  of  nations, 
but  of  persons,  and  not  merely  to  the  external  means  of  sal- 
vation, or  to  church  privileges,  but  to  everlasting  life. 

The  great  difficulty  is,  among  the  number  of  passages  which 
immediately  present  themselves  to  the  mind  of  every  attentive 
reader  of  Holy  Writ,  to  select  such  only  as  offer  the  least 
temptation  to  those  endless  discussions,  and  verbal  differences, 
which  have  always  perplexed  this  mysterious  subject.  For 
this  purpose,  we  are  disposed  to  omit  all  reference,  to  the 
many  testimonies  borne  throughout  the  epistles,  to  the  doc- 
trine upon  which  we  are  commenting,  and  by  which  it  is 
usual  to  establish  its  truth  ;  we  will  not  even  detain  you,  by 
considering  that  unanswerable  passage,  "We  are  bound  to 
give  thanks  always  to  God  for  you,  brethren,  beloved  of  the 
Lord,  because  God  hath  from  the  beginning  CHOSEN  YOU  TO 
SALVATION,  through  sanctification  of  the  Spirit  and  belief  of 
the  truth,  whereunto  He  called  you  by  our  Gospel  to  the  ob- 
taining of  the  glory  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ;"*  but  we  will 
go  at  once  to  the  Gospel  itself,  and  to  the  words  of  Him  who 
spake  as  never  man  before,  or  since,  has  spoken  ;  leaving  it 
to  yourselves  to  search  for  the  corroboration,  or  refutation  of 
these  high  doctrines,  in  those  inspired  writings  of  the  Apostles, 
which  have  ever  been  considered  by  the  church,  as  the  best 
commentary  upon  the  words  of  their  master. 

We  shall  first,  then,  refer  to  our  Lord's  declaration  respect- 
ing his  Apostles. 

We  have  already  quoted  a  passage,  in  which  he  says, 
"  Have  I  not  chosen  you  twelve  ?"  where  the  word  is  evi- 
dently used  in  reference  to  the  discipleship ;  is  it  not,  then,  a 
little  remarkable  that  our  Lord  uses  again  the  same  word,  and 
infers  that  He  has  not  chosen  the  twelve,  when  he  says  ex- 

*  2  Thess.  ii.  13,  14. 


76  DISCOURSE     VI. 

pressly,  "  I  speak  not  of  you  all ;  I  know  whom  I  have 
chosen."  It  is  not  easy  to  reconcile  these  two  declarations, 
wiihout  allowing  that,  in  the  former,  our  Lord  spoke  only  of 
an  election  to  the  apostleship,  while,  in  the  latter,  he  spoke 
of  an  election  to  eternal  life  ;  in  the  first  of  which  Judas  was 
included,  although  not  in  the  second. 

Add  only  to  this,  the  other  clear  and  explicit  statements  of 
our  Divine  Master  himself,  as  recorded  by  St.  John,  "  All 
that  the  Father  giveth  me,  shall  come  to  me."  "  And  this  is 
the  Father's  will  which  hath  sent  me,  that  of  all  which  he 
hath  given  me  I  should  lose  nothing,  but  should  raise  it  up 
again  at  the  last  day."  "  I  have  manifested  thy  name  unto 
the  men  which  thou  gavest  me  out  of  the  world  :  thine  they 
were,  and  thou  gavest  them  me,  and  they  have  kept  thy 
Word."  "  I  pray  for  them,  I  pray  not  for  the  world,  but  for 
them  which  thou  hast  given  me,  for  they  are  thine."  "  And 
I  give  unto  them  eternal  life ;  and  they  shall  never  perish, 
neither  shall  any  man  pluck  them  out  of  my  hand.  My  Fa- 
ther who  gave  them  me  is  greater  than  all ;  and  no  man  is 
able  to  pluck  them  out  of  my  Father's  hand." 

The  distinction  in  these  passages,  between  those  who  are 
given  to  Christ,  and  those  who  are  not  given,  is  so  obvious, 
that  we  do  not  fear  to  rest  the  whole  question,  of  the  doctrine 
which  we  are  considering,  upon  these  declarations  of  our 
Lord,  and  to  say  with  a  celebrated  Reformer,*  that  "  if  in  the 
whole  Scripture  there  were  no  more  places  to  prove  it,  .  .  . 
this  alone  were  sufficient." 

If,  however,  the  nature  of  this  discourse  would  admit  of  it, 
we  should  be  willing  to  refer  this  important  subject  of  "  pre- 
destination unto  life,"  and  our  "  election  in  Christ,"  to  your 
own  experience,  and  to  your  own  hearts,  and  permit  them  to 
determine  the  question.  We  would  take  aside  every  indi- 
vidual child  of  God  among  you  at  this  moment,  and  suffer  the 
truth  of  the  doctrine  to  stand,  or  fall,  according  to  his  reply 

*  John  Knox's  Treatise  on  Predestination,  p.  57. 


ARTIC  LE    XVII.  77 

to  this  inquiry,  Did  you,  in  your  own  case,  first  choose  Gody 
or  did  God  choose  you  ? 

When  you  were  in  the  thoughtlessness,  and  carelessness 
of  childhood,  what  led  you  to  the  knowledge  of  your  Maker, 
and  your  Redeemer  ?  When  you  were  forgetting  him  in 
your  youth,  and  beginning,  or  perhaps  more  than  beginning, 
to  tread  the  downward  path,  who  arrested  your  steps  ?  Who 
held  you  back,  when  on  the  very  brink  of  everlasting  ruin  ? 
Who,  when  you  were  resolutely  bent  upon  disregarding 
him,  and  dishonouring  him,  when  you  have  indeed  wandered 
far  from  him,  reasoned  with  you,  strove  with  you,  and  draw- 
ing you  "  with  the  bands  of  love,"  at  the  last  overcame  you, 
and  carried  you  home  "  on  his  shoulders  rejoicing  ?" 

And  were  you  alone  in  sin,  had  you  no  companions  in 
iniquity,  and  where  are  they  ?  Have  they  also  returned  to 
God?  Are  they  now  among  his  people?  What,  then,  you 
were  not  alone  in  sin,  but  you  have  been  alone  in  your  re- 
pentance, alone  in  your  present  state  of  acceptance  with  God  1 
Who  then  has  made  you  to  differ  ?  Who  has  snatched  you, 
as  a  brand  from  the  burning  ?  Who  has  saved  you,  where 
others,  in  the  midst  of  equal  privileges,  and  equal  opportu- 
nities, have  been  cut  off  in  their  career  of  impenitence  and 
sin,  and,  as  we  fear,  for  ever  perished  ?  We  are  convinced 
that  each  would  answer,  It  was  God,  even  my  God :  thanks 
be  to  God  for  exercising  his  grace,  according  to  his  sovereign 
will,*and  not  according  to  my  deservings.  "  So  then  it  is  not 
of  him  that  willeth,  nor  of  him  that  runneth,  but  of  God  that 
showeth  mercy."* 

Yes,  brethren,  this  is  one  of  those  subjects  which  derive 
their  most  unanswerable  arguments  from  the  testimony  of 
our  own  consciences,  from  what  we  feel  within  us,  and  from 
what  we  see  around  us.  I  would  not  stir  one  hair's  breadth 
to  induce  any  human  being  to  receive  these  opinions,  until 
his  own  experience  has  preached  them  to  him,  or  his  own 

*  Rom.  ix.  16, 

7* 


78  DISCOURSE     VI. 

heart  has  anxiously  sought  them,  as  the  channel  through 
which  to  pour  the  full  flood  of  its  gratitude  to  the  Giver  of 
all  its  blessings. 

We  have  seen,  in  the  course  of  our  inquiry,  that  there  are 
three  methods,  in  which  the  terms  of  electing,  or  choosing^ 
are  applied  in  Holy  Writ ;  the  election  to  an  office,  the  elec- 
tion of  nations  or  communities  to  external  privileges,  and  the 
election  of  persons  to  eternal  salvation.  We  have  next  to 
investigate  which  of  the  three  is  adopted  by  our  church  in 
the  Article  before  us.  The  very  first  words  of  the  Article 
appear  to  us  to  decide  the  question,  "  Predestination  to  life." 
Not,  therefore,  predestination  to  office,  or  employment ;  not, 
as  some  explain  it,  predestination  to  any  national  advantages, 
or  outward  means  of  grace,  but  "  predestination  to  life,"  to 
spiritual  life  here,  and  to  eternal  life  heaeafter. 

Should  there  be  any,  however,  who  do  not  consider  these 
opening  words  to  be  so  decisive  upon  this  point  as  we  are 
led  to  believe,  it  may  perhaps  assist  them  in  coming  to  a  right 
conclusion,  if  they  will  only  take  an  unprejudiced  view  of  the 
remainder  of  the  passage,  which  we  have  already  quoted.  In 
this,  the  church  distinctly  declares,  that  the  predestination  of 
which  she  is  speaking  is  "  the  everlasting  purpose  of  God,  to 
deliver  from  curse,  and  damnation,  those  whom  he  hath 
chosen  in  Christ,  out  of  mankind."  Now  it  is  evident,  that  if 
the  compilers  of  our  Article  had  intended  to  refer  only  to 
national  election,  they  would  scarcely  have  employed  such 
terms  as  these,  for  they  must  too  well  have  known,  that  many 
who  were  in  the  fullest  enjoyment  of  all  the  outward  ordi- 
nances of  religion,  might  eventually  not  be  delivered  from 
44  curse  and  damnation,"  but  after  all  their  external  advan- 
tages, make  shipwreck  of  their  faith,  to  the  eternal  ruin  of 
their  souls.  When  therefore  the  compilers  say  that  the  pre- 
destination of  which  they  speak,  is  a  44  predestination  to  life," 
and  the  election  of  which  they  speak,  is  the  choice  out  "  of 
mankind,"  of  those  whom  God  will  "  deliver  from  curse  and 
damnation,"  and  will  bring  by  Christ  to  everlasting  salva- 


**  ARTICLE    XVI  I.  79 

tion,"  it  certainly  does  appear,  that  however  wise  men,  and 
good  men,  may  differ  as  to  their  interpretation  of  Scripture, 
upon  this  point,  they  cannot  easily  differ,  as  to  their  interpre- 
tation of  the  views  of  our  church,  respecting  this  great  sub- 
ject. We  do  not  hesitate  to  say,  that  we  believe  the  opinion 
of  our  church,  upon  the  question  of  particular  election  to 
eternal  life,  to  be  as  decisive  as  any  opinion  she  has  ever  ex- 
pressed in  her  accredited  formularies. 

Although  we  thus  clearly  state  our  own  conviction  of  the 
sentiments  of  our  church  upon  this  point,  we  would  desire  to 
exercise  the  greatest  moderation,  while  maintaining  them. 
We  believe  that  many  holy  men,  who  are  ranged  among  her 
true,  and  attached  followers,  do  not  view  this  subject  in  the 
same  light.  We  are  unable  to  agree  with  them ;  but  this 
difference  of  sentiment  neither  diminishes  our  respect  for  their 
piety,  nor  our  opinion  of  their  sincerity  or  their  judgment. 
We  are  willing  to  concede  to  them  the  point,  that  these  doc- 
trines are  not  to  be  brought  forward  in  the  ordinary  course 
of  Christian  instruction,  in  any  other,  or  more  prominent  po- 
sitions than  they  occupy  in  the  revealed  Word  of  our  God. 
We  are  willing  to  consider  them,  not  as  topics  of  discussion 
for  the  young  Christian,  but  as  consolations  for  the  established 
believer,  as  the  solace  of  the  depressed,  the  sustenance  of  the 
fainting,  the  support  of  the  departing  servants  of  the  Lord  ; 
and  surely  they  who  differ  from  us  should,  on  their  part,  be 
willing  to  concede  to  us,  that  if  we  believe  we  find  such  doc- 
trines in  the  word  of  God,  and  if  we  feel  them  to  be  neces- 
sary to  our  own  stability,  and  to  our  own  comfort,  we  should 
be  left  in  the  peaceful  enjoyment  of  them,  without  having 
deductions,  which  we  never  draw,  and  conclusions,  which 
we  never  arrive  at,  forced  upon  us  as  our  own,  and  the  hor- 
rible consequences  of  these  imaginary  deductions,  and  con- 
clusions, visited  upon  our  heads.  However,  then,  we  may 
differ  upon  these  high  subjects,  which,  after  all,  must  ever  be 
more  speculative  than  practical,  let  us,  my  brethren,  resolva 


80  DISCOURSE     VI. 

that,  as  regards  ourselves,  they  shall  never,  under  any  degree 
of  provocation,  lead  us  to  the  adoption  of  bitterness  of  lan- 
guage, or  acerbity  of  feeling ;  or  even  to  the  diminution  of 
Christian  love,  towards  those  of  whom,  whatever  be  the  dif- 
ferences between  us  upon  these  mysterious  points,  we  be- 
lieve, and  rejoice  to  believe,  that  they  are  the  followers  of  the 
same  Master,  with  a  love  as  fervent,  and  a  service  as  accept- 
able, as  the  best  among  ourselves. 

All  that,  as  your  minister,  I  would  require  of  you  is,  to 
"  search  the  Scriptures  daily  and  see  whether  these  things  be 
so."  Search  them,  not  in  a  controversial  spirit,  a  spirit  in 
which  do  religious  question,  and  still  less  one  so  deeply  mys- 
terious as  that  before  us,  ought  ever  to  be  approached ;  but 
search  them,  with  a  prayerful  desire  to  be  led  into  all  truth, 
that  you  may  be  the  belter  able  to  glorify  the  God  of  truth. 
The  days,  we  trust,  shall  arrive,  when  the  differences  of 
opinion  to  which  we  have  just  adverted,  shall  make  no  dimi- 
nution in  the  regard  with  which  each  member  of  the  body  of 
Christ  shall  behold  every  other  member ;  when  the  terms 
Arminian  and  Calvinist,  Orthodox,  and  Evangelical,  shall  be 
forgotten,  and  when  the  only  distinction  known  within  our 
church,  shall  be,  that  which  must  always  arise  from  the  ever- 
varying  degrees  of  love  to  God,  and  conformity  to  his  will, 
and  holiness  of  life,  and  charity  of  thought,  and  word,  and 
action,  manifested  in  the  progressive  sanctification  of  all  his 
children." 

The  Article  before  us,  having  then,  as  we  believe,  clearly 
propounded  the  doctrine  of  election  unto  everlasting  life,  of 
"  those  who  are  chosen  in  Christ  out  of  mankind,"  continues 
thus  to  speak  of  its  practical  results :  "  Wherefore  they  which 
be  endued  with  so  excellent  a  benefit  of  God,  be  called  accord- 
ing to  God's  purpose  by  his  Spirit  working  in  due  season ; 
they  through  grace  obey  the  calling  ;  they  be  justified  freely ; 
they  be  made  sons  of  God  by  adoption ;  they  be  made  like 
the  image  of  his  only-begotten  Son  Jesus  Christ ;  they  walk 


ARTICLE    XVI  I.  81 

religiously  in  good  works,  and  at  length,  by  God's  mercy,  they 
attain  to  everlasting  felicity."* 

This  plain  and  beautiful  passage  seems  written  expressly 
with  a  view  to  that  declaration  of  the  Spirit  of  God  which  we 
meet  with  in  Romans  viii.  30,  "  Whom  he  did  predestinate, 
them  he  also  called ;  and  whom  he  called,  them  he  also  jus- 
tified ;  and  whom  he  justified,  them  he  also  glorified."  It 
distinctly  marks  the  progress  of  the  true>  people  of  God, 
from  their  first  effectual  calling  by  the  Spirit  of  Grace, 
through  their  justification,  their  adoption,  their  sanctification, 
up  to  their  everlasting  felicity  ;  and  asserts  that  all  is  of  grace, 
of  free,  boundless,  undeserved  grace,  from  their  first  election 
of  God  before  all  time,  throughout  their  holy  obedience  to 
God  in  time,  and  to  their  final  glorification  with  God,  when 
time  shall  be  no  longer. 

While  upon  this  portion  of  the  Article,  it  is  important  to 
remark,  as  we  have  before  had  occasion  to  do,  the  extreme 
caution  and  watchfulness  of  our  church,  not  to  admit  a  single 
questionable  statement  into  these  valuable  documents.  You 
will  observe  that  the  subject  of  reprobation,  or  the  Calvinistic 
doctrine,  that  as  certain  persons  are  elected  to  eternal  life,  so 
certain  persons  are  elected  to  eternal  condemnation,  is  left 
entirely  untouched.  The  compilers  of  our  Articles  were 
never  tempted  to  enter  upon  those  unhallowed  deductions, 
with  which  men  are  so  apt  to  delight  themselves  on  this  high 
subject,  saying,  If  it  please  God  to  elect  certain  persons  in 
Christ,  to  "  bring  to  everlasting  salvation,  as  vessels  made  to 
honour,"  then  must  he,  by  this  act,  condemn,  or,  at  the  very 
least,  pass  by  all  others,  and  seal  them  up  under  final  con- 
demnation. Not  a  word  of  this  kind  is  to  be  found  in  our 
Articles,  in  our  Homilies,  or  in  our  Liturgy  ;  no,  not  although 

*  It  is,  perhaps,  scarcely  necessary  to  remark  that,  throughout  this  pas- 
sage, every  clause,  "  They  through  grace,"  &c.,"  They  be  justified,"  &c., 
is  a  predicate  true  only  if  the  election  spoken  of  by  our  church  be  admitted 
to  be  a  personal  election  ;  but  absolutely  false,  if  it  be  considered  a  national 
election 


82  DISCOURSE    VI. 

you  search  the  accredited  formularies  of  our  church  from  end 
to  end,  will  you  find  a  single  sentence  breathing  such  a  doc- 
trine. The  fact  is,  that,  upon  this  point,  it  has,  at  least  so  it 
appears  to  us,  pleased  God  to  reveal  nothing,  and,  therefore, 
most  wisely  and  most  discreetly  it  has  pleased  our  church 
also  to  assert  nothing.* 

Far  be  it  then,  from  me  to  speak  dogmatically,  where  our 
church  is  silent,  but,  as  regards  my  own  opinion,  as  theee 
may  be  those  among  you  who  might  desire  to  know  the  sen- 
timents of  your  minister  upon  so  weighty,  so  tremendous  a 
point,  I  feel  no  hesitation  in  declaring  that  I  believe  the  doc- 
trine of  reprobation,  to  be  as  utterly  at  variance  with  all  that 
is  revealed  to  us  of  the  character  of  God,  as  with  those  many 
unequivocal  declarations  of  his  Divine  Word,  that  "  He  will- 
eth  not  that  any  should  perish,  but  that  all  should  come  to 
repentance."  That  he  has  "  No  pleasure  in  the  death  of  a 
sinner,  but  rather  that  he  should  turn  from  his  wickedness 
and  live."  While  it  appears  to  me  that  the  inspired  writers, 
and  even  our  Lord  himself,  speaking,  as  they  often  do,  very 
distinctly  upon  the  doctrine  of  election,  always  take  especial 
care  to  except  the  doctrine  of  reprobation.t  Thus,  in  the 

*  There  are  indeed  some  excellent  cautions  towards  the  latter  part  of  the 
Article  ;  but  we  do  not  think  that  these  invalidate  what  we  have  just  as- 
serted, or  refer  in  any  degree  to  the  doctrine  of  reprobation,  but  simply  to 
an  unhallowed,  and  licentious  view  of  the  great  doctrine  propounded  in 
the  former  part.  Thus  after  declaring  that  the  godly  consideration  of  pre- 
destination, is  full  of  sweet,  pleasant,  and  unspeakable  comfort  to  godly 
persons,  "  as  well  because  it  doth  greatly  establish  and  confirm  their  faith 
of  eternal  salvation,  to  be  enjoyed  through  Christ,  as  because  it  doth  fer- 
vently kindle  their  love  to  God."  the  Article  proceeds  to  show  that  the 
consideration  of  the  same  subject  by  curious  and  carnal  persons,  lacking 
the  Spirit  of  God,  "  is  a  most  dangerous  downfall,  whereby  the  devil  doth 
thrust  them  either  into  desperation  or  into  recklessness  of  most  unclean 
living  ;"  plainly  referring  to  those  who  argue,  that  if  they  are  elected,  no 
ein  can  hinder  them,  and  if  they  are  not  elected,  no  holiness  can  help 
them. 

t  That  this  is  the  view  of  all  the  best  authorities  in  our  church  might 
easily  be  shown,  but  a  single  passage  from  Hooker  must  suffice: — "For 
if  God's  electing  do,  in  order,  (as  needs  it  must,)  presuppose  the  foresight 


ARTICLE    XVII.  83 

description  of  the  final  judgment  in  the  twenty-fifth  chapter 
of  St.  Matthew,  our  Lord  appears  to  take  for  granted  the 
former  of  these  doctrines  as  a  well  established  truth,  when  he 
says,  "  Then  shall  the  King  say  unto  them  on  his  right  hand, 
Come  ye  blessed  of  my  Father,  inherit  the  kingdom  pre- 
pared for  you  from  the  foundation  of  the  world ;"  while  at 
the  same  time  he  appears  as  distinctly  to  exclude  the  latter 
doctrine  when  he  adds,  "  Then  shall  he  say  also  to  them  on 
his  left  hand,  Depart  from  me,  ye  cursed,  into  everlasting  fire, 
prepared"  (not  for  you,  but)  "  for  the  devil  and  his  angels." 
If  then,  "  We  receive  God's  promises  as  they  be  generally 
set  forth  to  us  in  Holy  Scripture,"  and  not  as  they  be  limited 
or  restricted  by  the  results  of  human  reasoning,  we  shall,  on 
the  one  hand,  neither  desire  to  reject,  nor  to  explain  away, 
nor  to  render  futile,  such  mysterious  doctrines  as  those  which 
we  have  been  considering ;  nor  shall  we,  on  the  other  hand, 
be  afraid  to  give  their  full  and  literal  meaning  to  such  pro- 
mises as  these  :  "  Whosoever  will,  let  him  take  of  the  water 
of  life  freely."  "  Come  unto  me,  all  ye  that  labour  and  are 
heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give  you  rest."  While  in  fact,  we 
shall  hold  the  doctrine  of  this  Article,  viz.,  particular  election, 
as  it  is  most  plainly  propounded  by  our  Lord,  when  he  said, 
"  All  that  the  Father  giveth  me  shall  come  to  me,"  we  shall 
hold  the  great  doctrine  of  universal  redemption,*  which  ap- 

of  their  being  that  are  elected,  though  they  be  elected  before  they  be  ;  nor 
only  tjie  positive  foresight  of  their  being,  but  also  the  permissive  of  their 
being  miserable,  because  election  is  through  mercy,  and  mercy  doth 
always  presuppose  misery  ;  it  followeth,  that  the  very  chosen  of  God 
acknowledge  to  the  praise  of  the  riches  of  his  exceeding  free  compassion, 
that  when  he  in  his  secret  determination  set  it  down  *  Those  shall  live  and 
not  die,1  they  lay  as  ugly  spectacles  before  him,  as  lepers  ....  miserable, 
worthy  to  be  had  in  detestation ;  and  shall  any  forsaken  creature  be  able 
to  say  unto  God,  '  Thou  didst  plunge  me  into  the  depth,  and  assign  me 
unto  endless  torments,  only  to  satisfy  thine  own  will,  finding  nothing  in 
me  for  which  I  could  seem  in  thy  sight  so  well  worthy  to  feel  everlasting 
flames?'  " — Hooker's  Answer  to  Tr'avers,  page  482,  Edit.  1622. 

*  The  doctrine  of  universal  redemption  (very  different  from  the  figment 
of  universal  pardon)  is  most  emphatically  stated  in  the  thirty-first  Article 


84  DISCOURSE     VI. 

pears  to  be  with  equal  plainness  involved  in  the  concluding 
passage,  "  Him  that  cometh  to  me  I  will  in  no  wise  cast  out." 
Whether  we  are  able  or  unable  to  reconcile  these  apparently 
conflicting  statements  is  of  little  moment ;  both  are  to  be 
found  in  the  unerring  word  of  God,  and  therefore  each  is  of 
equal  importance  and  of  equal  truth  ;  and  receiving  both  in 
humility  and  in  love,  we  shall  raise  our  heartfelt  acknowledg- 
ments upon  every  review  of  those  blessed  and  life-giving 
truths,  to  "  God  the  Father,  who  hath  made  us  and  all  the 
world ;  to  God  the  Son,  who  hath  redeemed  us  and  all  man- 
kind ;  and  to  God  the  Holy  Ghost,  who  sanctifieth  us  and 
all  the  elect  people  of  God." — (Catechism  of  the  Church  of 
England.) 

We  have  seen,  then,  that  the  end  to  which  we  are  elected 
by  God,  is  everlasting  life;  but  we  must  never  forget  that 
faith  and  holiness  are  the  means  through  which  we  must  pass 
to  it ;  that  there  is  no  instance  in  sacred  writ  in  which  this 
end  and  these  means  are  disunited.  All  tend  to  this  point, 
that  "  we  are  his  workmanship,  created  in  Christ  Jesus  unto 
good  works,  which  God  hath  before  ordained  that  we  should 
walk  in  them."  "  For  whom  He  did  foreknow,  he  also  did 
predestinate,"  says  the  Apostle,  "  to  be  conformed  to  the 
image  of  his  son."  It  is  then  perfectly  clear,  that  none  are 
among  the  elect  people  of  God,  who  do  not  obey  the  call 
to  that  faith  in  a  crucified  Redeemer,  "  without  which  no 
man  living  shall  be  justified,"  and  to  that  "  holiness,  without 
which  no  man  shall  see  the  Lord  :"  that  none  are  predestinated 

of  our  church,  which  says,  "The  offering  of  Christ  once  made  is  that 
perfect  redemption,  propitiation,  and  satisfaction  for  all  the  sins  of  the  whole 
world,  both  original  and  actual."  That  this  was  the  opinion  of  the  chief 
compiler  of  our  Articles,  may  be  seen  from  many  parts  of  his  works :  e.  gt 
11  This  is  the  honour  and  glory  of  our  High  Priest,  wherein  he  admitteth 
neither  partner  nor  successor.  For  by  his  one  oblation  Tie  satisfied  the 
Father  of  all  men's  sins." — Cranmer's  Answer  to  Gardiner,  p.  372. 
•'  Mark  here,  he  saith, '  Come  all  ye:'  wherefore  then  should  any  man 
despair  to  shut  out  himself  from  these  promises  of  Christ,  which  be  gene- 
ral and  pertain  to  the  whole  world." — Sermons,  p.  182,  Edit.  1584. 


ARTICLE    XVII.  85 

to  everlasting  life,  who  are  not  "  conformed  to  the  image  of 
the  Saviour,"  i.  e.,  imitating  him  in  their  life  and  conversa- 
tion :  that  none  are  "  chosen  in  Christ  out  of  the  world,"  who 
are  not  also  "  created  in  Christ  Jesus  unto  good  works." 
Bear  then  continually  in  mind,  brethren,  that  if  you  are  elect 
to  the  enjoyment  of  everlasting  life,  it  can  only  be  "through 
sanctification  of  the  Spirit  unto  obedience  and  sprinkling  of 
the  blood  of  Jesys  Christ;"*  that  if,  as  the  Article  expresses 
it,  "  Predestination  to  life  is  the  everlasting  purpose  of  God," 
concerning  you  "  whom  he  hath  chosen  in  Christ  out  of  man- 
kind," it  is  equally  his  everlasting  purpose  "  that  you  should 
be  holy  and  without  blarne  before  Him  in  love."t  No  man 
ever  was  or  ever  can  be  elected  to  the  end,  who  was  not 
elected  in  the  way  which  leads  to  it.  Be  assured,  therefore, 
that  unless  you  are  united  by  a  living  faith  to  the  Saviour — 
unless  you  are  continually  striving  after  conformity  to  His 
will,  obedience  to  His  laws,  love  to  His  person,  hatred  to, 
and  abstinence  from  all  sin,  you  have  no  evidence,  you  can 
have  no  evidence,  that  your  names  are  written  in  the  Lamb's 
book  of  life ;  for  be  ye  sure  of  this,  that  no  man  who  is  not 
found  cleansed  and  purified  by  the  Spirit  of  Christ,  and 
walking  while  on  earth  in  the  strait  and  narrow  way  which 
alone  leads  to  heaven,  can  ever  hope  to  be  ultimately  found 
in  that  heaven  the  gate  of  which,  though  "  wide  enough  to 
admit  the  greatest  sinner,  is  too  narrow  to  admit  the  smallest 
sin."  "  Give,  therefore,  diligence,  to  make  your  calling  and 
election  sure ;"  not  simply  to  obtain  an  assurance  of  it,  as 
some  would  explain  away  the  meaning  of  the  passage,  but  to 
make  it  sure,  firm,  secure,  steadfast.  Recollect,  an  Apostle 
could  declare,  u  I  keep  under  my  body,  and  bring  it  into  sub- 
jection, lest  that  by  any  means  when  I  have  preached  to 
others,  I  myself  should  be  a  cast-away ;"  and  let  the  recol- 
lection urge  you  to  greater  zeal,  greater  prayerfulness,  greater 
holiness,  "  Giving  all  diligence  to  add  to  your  faith  virtue,  and 

*  1  Pet  i.  2.  t  Ephes.  i.  4. 


86 


DISCOURSE     VI 


to  virtue  knowledge,  and  to  knowledge  temperance,  and  to 
temperance  patience,  and  to  patience  godliness,  and  to  god- 
liness brotherly  kindness,  and  to  brotherly  kindness  charity ;" 
"for  if  ye  do  these  things,  ye  shall  never  fall." 

In  conclusion,  if  I  address  any  of  you  who  are  unable  to 
receive  the  truths,  of  which  we  have  this  day  spoken,  as  the 
truths  of  God,  "  Let  not  your  hearts  be  troubled,  neither  be 
afraid."  "  Then  shall  ye  know,  if  ye  follow  on  to  know  the 
Lord,"  is  his  own  most  gracious  promise,  and  in  due  time 
will  assuredly  be  fulfilled  to  all  who  seek  it.  If  you  need  the 
consolation  or  encouragement  which  this  blessed  doctrine  is 
so  well  calculated  to  bestow,  we  doubt  not  that  it  will  be  given 
you :  if  you  need  it  not,  and  do  not,  and  cannot  receive  it, 
be  careful  not  to  be  tempted  to  scorn  those  who  hold  it,  lest 
haply  you  be  found  even  to  fight  against  God.  Be  content 
to  rest  upon  that  Rock  of  Ages  on  which  we  are  all  resting ; 
to  dwell  on  those  things  on  which  all  the  children  of  God 
agree,  and  to  leave  those  on  which  they  differ,  till  a  day  of 
brighter  light,  and  more  unclouded  sunshine.  It  is  an  un- 
speakable blessing  to  know  that  there  is  not  any  difficulty, 
and,  blessed  be  God,  there  has  never  been,  among  real  Chris- 
tians, any  controversy  respecting  the  one  great  truth  which 
is  the  basis  of  our  hope,  the  foundation  of  our  eternity,  viz., 
"  The  blood  of  Jesus  Christ  cleanseth  from  all  sin;"  and  he 
is  able  to  save  to  the  uttermost  all  that  come  unto  God  by 
Him.  If  your  souls  are  ever  tempest-tossed  upon  that  ocean 
of  the  mysteries  of  God  which  man  can  never  fathom,  here 
they  may  find  an  anchorage,  whence  neither  wind  nor  wave 
can  drive  them.  It  is  a  declara'tion  so  plain  "  that  he  may  run 
that  readeth  it  ;"*  and  yet  so  powerful,  the  guiltiest  sinner 
upon  earth,  needs  no  plea  more  availing  to  enable  him  to 
stand  before  the  bar  of  God,  in  garments  of  as  unspotted 
whiteness  as  ever  graced  the  angels  and  archangels  who  sur- 
round his  throne.  "The  blood  of  Jesus  Christ  cleanseth 

*  Hab.  ii.  2. 


ARTICLE    XVII.  87 

from  all  sin."  None  can  be  saved  who  fly  not  to  that  cleans- 
ing blood,  none  can  be  lost  who  go  as  penitent  believers 
there.  On  this  vital  point,  you  who  deny  the  doctrine  of 
election  believe  no  less  ;  and  we  who  hold  the  doctrine  be- 
lieve no  more.  Here  upon  this  keystone  of  the  arch  of  our 
salvation,  all  true  believers,  of  every  kindred,  and  nation,  and 
people,  and  tongue,  have  taken  their  fixed  and  final  stand. 
Heaven  and  earth  may  pass  away,  must  pass  away,  but 
amidst  the  ruin  of  a  falling  world,  this  keystone  of  the  arch 
shall  remain  unshaken,  and  not  an  individual,  from  our  great 
forefather  Adam,  to  his  last  and  youngest  son,  who  has  firmly 
set  his  foot  upon  that  arch,  but  shall  be  pronounced  a  con- 
queror, and  "  more  than  conqueror,  through  Him  that  loveth 
us."  May  we,  brethren,  be  found,  upon  that  great  and  coming 
day,  thus  planted  upon  the  Rock  of  Ages  ;  may  we  even  now 
taste  something  of  the  stability  and  comfort  which  this  can 
alone  impart,  and  on  that  day  when  all  else  shall  for  ever 
pass  away  from  beneath  our  feet,  may  we,  firmly  fixed  on 
this  immovable  foundation,  take  up  the  Conqueror's  song 
and  exclaim,  "  Thanks  be  to  God  who  hath  given  us  the 
victory  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  !"* 


*  In  chapters  ix.  x.,  &c.,  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  St.  Paul  treats 
the  sentence  of  Predestination.  For  from  that  alone  depend  all  things  ; 
that  is,  who  will  or  not  receive  the  Word,  who  will  or  not  believe,  who 
are  to  be  delivered  from  sin,  who  blinded,  who  condemned,  and  who  jus- 
tified   And  assuredly  this  firm  sentence  and  immovable  necessity 

of  predestination  is  most  necessary.  For  so  weak  are  we,  that  were  it 
placed  in  our  hands,  very  few  or  none  would  be  saved.  For  the  devil 
would  overcome  all.  But  now  since  this  firm  and  most  certain  sentence 
of  God  cannot  be  changed  or  reversed  by  any  creature,  there  is  a  hope 
surely  left  us  of  conquering  sin  at  length,  how  much  soever  it  now  rage  in 
the  flesh.  But  here  those  inquisitive  persons  are  to  be  checked,  who,  be- 
fore they  have  learned  Christ  and  the  virtue  of  the  cross,  pry  into  the  abyss 
of  predestination,  and  vainly  seek  to  know  whether  they  are  predestinated 
or  not.  For  these  will  doubtless  lead  and  precipitate  themselves  by  their 
own  foolish  curiosity  into  the  snares  of  conscience  or  desperation.  But  do 
thou  in  the  process  of  learning  sacred  truth,  follow  the  train  and  order  de- 
livered by  the  Apostle.  First,  learn  to  know  Christ,  that  thou  mayest 


88  DISCOURSE    VI. 

confess  thine  own  powers  of  no  avail  but  to  sin.  Then  wrestle  diligently 
with  the  flesh  by  faith,  as  he  teaches  in  chap.  vii.  Presently,  when  thou 
have  come  to  the  eighth  chapter,  that  is,  when  thou  hast  had  trial  of  tribu- 
lation and  the  cross, then,  for  the  first  time,  this  necessity  of  pre- 
destination will  grow  sweet,  then,  for  the  first  time,  thou  wilt  perceive  in 
chapters  x.  xi.  how  full  of  comfort  is  predestination.  For  unless  thou  hast 
experienced  tribulation  ;  unless  thou  hast  felt  thyself  brought,  as  we  see 
in  David  and  other  saints  sometimes  to  the  gates  of  hell,  thou  canst  not 
handle  the  sentence  of  predestination  without  danger,  and,  as  it  were,  a 
blasphemous  murmuring  of  nature  against  God.  It  is  necessary,  there- 
fore, that  the  old  Adam  should  be  mortified  and  the  senses  of  the  flesh 
bruised,  and  that  the  babes  in  Christ  should  grow  to  riper  age  before  they 
drink  this  strong  wine" — Luther1 s  Preface  to  Ep.  to  the  Romans.  Works, 
vol.  v.  100.  Witeb.  1554. 

Trie  above  passage  (for  calling  his  attention  to  which  the  author  is  in- 
debted to  a  note  in  the  Rev.  V.  Short's  History  of  the  Church  of  England) 
seems  entirely  the  groundwork  of  the  seventeenth  Article  of  our  church, 
and  fully  justifies  us  in  saying  that  the  Article  is  more  Lutheran  than 
Calvinistic.  At  the  same  time,  it  differs  as  widely  from  the  views  of  those 
who  imagine  election  to  be  confined  to  national  privileges  (for  where  would 
be  the  "  strong  wine,"  "  meracum,"  in  the  doctrine  of  national  election  ?) 
as  it  does  from  those  who,  with  Calvin,  considered  personal  election  to  be 
a  doctrine  lying  at  the  foundation  of  our  faith,  and  upon  which  "  the  babes 
in  Christ"  are  to  be  built,  instead  of  reserving  it  for  the  topstone  of  the 
arch,  the  crowning  truth  of  our  religion,  revealed  for  the  comfort  and  en- 
couragement of  those  who  have  already  learnt  "  to  know  Christ"  and 
have  found  by  experience,  that  if  jheir  salvation  were  placed  in  their  own 
hands,  "the  devil  would  overcome  all."  In  truth,  it  is  a  doctrine  which 
the  head  must  condescend  to  learn  from  the  heart. 

As  an  example  of  the  spirit  in  which  such  truths  should  be  maintained, 
see  an  affecting  letter  of  the  martyr,  John  Bradford,,"  To  certain  men  not 
rightly  persuaded  in  the  most  true,  comfortable,  and  necessary  doctrine 
of  God's  holy  election  and  predestination." — Letter  Ixvii. 


ARTICLE     XXVI  I.  89 

DISCOURSE   VII. 

TITUS  iii.  4,  5,  6. 

But  after  that  the  kindness  and  love  of  God  our  Saviour  towards  man  ap- 
peared, not  by  works  of  righteousness  which  we  have  done,  but  accord- 
ing to  his  mercy  he  saved  us,  by  the  washing  of  regeneration  and  the 
renewing  of  the  Holy  Ghost ;  which  he  shed  on  us  abundantly,  through 
Jesus  Christ  our  Saviour. 

THE  only  two  doctrinal  Articles  which  now  remain  to  be 
brought  under  review,  are  the  twenty-seventh  and  twenty- 
eighth,  which  contain  the  opinions  of  our  Reformers  upon  the 
two  sacraments  which  "  Christ  ordained  in  his  church," 
"  Baptism,  and  the  Supper  of  the  Lord." 

The  twenty-seventh  Article,  which  is  confined  to  the  very 
important  subject  of  Christian  baptism,  will  afford,  under  the 
divine  blessing,  profitable  matter  for  our  present  consideration. 

It  is  almost  unnecessary  to  remind  you,  that  baptism  is  that 
initiatory  rite  established  by  the  great  founder  of  our  holy  re- 
ligion, the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  himself,  when  he  said, "  Go  ye 
therefore,  and  teach  all  nations,  baptizing  them  in  the  name 
of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost." 
Through  this  Divine  ordinance,  as  through  a  portal,  it  is  not 
too  much  to  say,  speaking  generally,*  that  all  true  converts 
are  required  to  pass  before  they  can  be  considered  members 
of  the  visible  church  of  the  Redeemer  upon  earth,  or  inheritors 
of  its  blessings  in  eternity, — "  He  that  believeth,  and  is  bap- 
tized, shall  be  saved." 

Rightly  to  understand  the  important  post  occupied  by  this 
Christian  sacrament  at  the  very  threshold  of  the  religion  we 
profess,  it  is  well  to  bear  in  mind  the  nature  of  that  initiatory 
ceremony  which  stood  equally  at  the  threshold  of  the  religion 

*  "  Q.  How  many  sacraments  hath  Christ  ordained  in  his  church  ? — 
A.  Two  only,  as  generally  necessary  to  salvation." — Catechism  of  the 
Church  of  England. 

8* 


PO  DISCOURSE    VI  I. 

which  Christianity  superseded.  We  find,  then,  that  at  eight 
days  only  every  male  of  the  children  of  Israel  was  solemnly 
dedicated  to  the  God  of  Israel  by  the  rite  of  circumcision.  In 
this  rite  the  infant  entered  into  covenant  with  God,  and  be- 
came one  of  that  visible  church  of  God  on  earth,  of  which  the 
Apostle  predicates  such  illustrious  things,  when  he  says,  "  To 
whom  pertaineth  the  adoption,  and  the  glory,  and  the  cove- 
nants." To  every  child  then,  who  was  circumcised  according 
to  the  letter  of  God's  law,  a  free  access  was  opened  to  all 
the  abundant  spiritual  blessings  which  the  chosen  people  of 
God  enjoyed,  since,  all  infant  as  he  was,  he  was  included  in 
the  covenant  which  God  had  made  with  Israel ;  and,  unless 
from  his  own  subsequent  misconduct  he  forfeited  these  bless- 
ings, he  was  numbered  among  the  true  Israelites,*  the  pos- 
sessors of  the  land  of  promise  here,  the  inheritors  of  the  land 
of  promise  hereafter. 

It  was  natural,  then,  that  in  the  Christian  dispensation, 
which  is  called  in  Scripture  "  the  better  covenant,"  and  with 
reference  to  which  it  was  declared  that  Christ  should,  "  in  all 
things  have  the  pre-eminence"  over  Moses,  there  should  be 
some  initiatory  rite  by  which  the  infant  children  of  believers 
should  be  brought  into  covenant  with  God,  and  be  permitted, 
at  as  early  an  age,  to  enjoy  at  least  all  the  spiritual  advan- 
tages which  had  been  enjoyed  in  the  Jewish  church,  and 
with  as  large  an  addition  to  those  advantages  as  the  freeness 
and  the  fulness  of  the  Gospel  dispensation  exceeded  those  of 
the  Jewish. 

What  might  so  reasonably  have  been  anticipated  from  the 
mercy  and  tender  compassion  of  our  God,  his  own  word,  as 
we  shall  see,  assures  us  is  come  to  pass  ;  and  it  is  in  depend- 
ence upon  the  authority  of  that  word,  that  our  Reformers  de- 
clared such  great  and  glorious  things  respecting  Christian 
baptism,  as  we  find  throughout  all  the  offices  of  our  church. 

To  demonstrate  this,  I  shall  commence  by  referring  you  to 

*  "  They  are  not  all  Israel,  which  are  of  Israel." — Rom.  ix,  6. 


ARTICLE    XXVII.  91 

the  first  answer  in  the  church  catechism,  in  which  the  child 
is  taught  to  declare,  respecting  his  baptism,  that  therein  he 
"  was  made  a  member  of  Christ,  a  child  of  God,  and  an  in- 
heritor of  the  kingdom  of  heaven."  While,  in  an  answer  to 
"  What  is  the  inward  and  spiritual  grace  of  baptism  ?"  he  is 
taught  to  reply,  "  A  death  unto  sin,  and  a  new  birth  unto 
righteousness ;  for,  being  by  nature  born  in  sin,  and  the  child- 
ren of  wrath,  we  are  hereby  made  the  children  of  grace." 
And  this  is  in  perfect  accordance  with  the  baptismal  service, 
in  which  the  church  teaches  us  to  pray  that  the  infant  then 
brought  to  God  "  may  receive  remission  of  his  sins  by  spi- 
ritual regeneration  ;"  and,  having  so  asked,  she  again,  in  "  the 
full  assurance  of  faith,"  that  "  whatsoever  we  ask  in  prayer 
believing,  we  shall  receive,"  if  it  be  according  to  the  will*  of 
God,  and  the  mind  of  the  Spirit,  directs  us  to  return  our 
humble  and  hearty  thanks  to  Almighty  God,  "  that  it  hath 
pleased  him  to  regenerate  this  infant  mind  with  his  Holy 
Spirit,  to  receive  him  for  his  own  child  by  adoption,  and  to 
incorporate  him  into  his  holy  church."! 

The  doctrine  which  our  Reformers  propounded  so  plainly 
in  the  Catechism,  and  in  the  Baptismal  service,  will  be  found 
stated  with  equal  clearness  and  truth  in  the  Article  now  be- 
fore us. 

XXVII.     Of  Baptism. 

"  Baptism  is  not  only  a  sign  of  profession  and  mark  of 
difference,  whereby  Christian  men  are  discerned  from  others 
that  be  not  christened,  but  it  is  also  a  sign  of  regeneration,  or 
new  birth,  whereby,  as  by  an  instrument,  they  that  receive 
baptism  rightly  are  grafted  into  the  church ;  the  promises  of 
forgiveness  of  sin,  and  of  our  adoption  to  be  the  sons  of 
God,  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  are  visibly  signed  and  sealed  ;  faith 
is  confirmed,  and  grace  increased  by  virtue  of  prayer  unto 

*  1  John  v.  14.  t  Baptismal  Service. 


y^6  DISCOURSE    VI  I. 

God."*  Our  church  declares  then,  in  these  words,  that  by 
"regeneration  or  new  birth,"  they  that  "receive  baptism 
rightly  are  grafted  into  the  church,"  and  have  "  the  promises 
of  forgiveness  of  sin,  and  of  their  adoption  to  be  the  sons  of 
God,  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  visibly  signed  and  sealed."  Now 
let  us  endeavour  to  disencumber  ourselves  of  all  human  sys- 
tems, and  forgetting  the  long,  and  angry,  and  bitter  contro- 
versies which  have  arisen  upon  these  points,  refer  simply  to 
the  Word  of  God,  and  discover  how  far  the  church  is  borne 
out,  in  these  her  declarations,  by  the  authority  of  that  Word, 
from  which,  as  Christians,  and  especially  as  Protestant  Chris- 
tians, we  can  desire  no  appeal. 

We  commence  then,  as  the  most  striking  and  remarkable  of 
all  the  declarations  of  Scripture  upon  this  head,  with  the  words 
of  the  text,  "  Not  by  works  of  righteousness  which  we  have 
done,  but  according  to  his  mercy  he  saved  us,  by  the  washing 
of  regeneration  and  renewing  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  which  he 
shed  on  us  abundantly  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Saviour." 

Here,  then,  is  a  case  in  which  the  Spirit  of  God,  speaking 
of  baptism,  uses  the  phrase,  "  The  washing  of  regeneration," 
as  synonymous  with  it,  meaning  therefore,  unquestionably, 
that  the  washing  of  baptism  is  the  sign  and  seal  of  the  washing 
of  regeneration  ;  and  therefore  fully  authorizing  our  church  to 
use  the  language  which  we  have  seen  that  she  adopts  respect- 
ing this  important  sacrament. 

That  this  is  no  isolated  passage,  but  that  the  general  tenor 

*  I  did  not  notice  the  concluding  passage  of  the  Article,  viz.,  "  The  bap- 
tism of  young  children  is  in  any  wise  to  be  retained  in  the  church,  as  most 
agreeable  with  the  institution  of  Christ,"  because  it  appeared  needless  to 
enter  upon  the  arguments  by  which  infant  baptism  is  proved  to  be  accord- 
ing to  the  will  of  God,  while  addressing  a  congregation  who  entertain  no 
doubts  upon  the  subject.  The  fact  that  baptism  supplies  the  place  of  cir- 
cumcision, and  the  certainty  that,  unless  it  did  so,  it  would  be  difficult  to 
show  that  the  dispensation  under  which  we  live  is  in  all  things  that  "  better 
covenant"  which  the  Spirit  of  God  pronounces  it ;  this,  added  to  the  uni- 
form practice  of  ths  Christian  church  for  nearly  one  thousand  years,  ap- 
pears fully  sufficient  to  satisfy  the  mind  of  every  unprejudiced  inquirer. 


ARTICLE    XXVI  I.  93 

of  Scripture  bears  us  out  in  expecting  these  great  things  from 
Christian  baptism,  when  "  rightly  received,"  may  easily  be 
demonstrated.  We  find  St.  Peter  replying  to  the  inquiry 
of  the  three  thousand  converts  on  the  day  of  Pentecost, 
44  What  shall  we  do  ?"  "  Repent  and  be  baptized,  every  one 
of  you,  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ,  for  the  remission  of 
sins,  and  ye  shall  receive  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  For 
the  promise  is  unto  you  and  to  your  children,  and  to  all  that 
are  afar  off,  even  as  many  as  the  Lord  our  God  shall  call." 
And  again,  "  Arise,  and  be  baptized,  and  wash  away  thy  sins, 
calling  upon  the  name  of  the  Lord."  Acts  xxii.  16.  So, 
also,  in  Eph.  v.  26,  "  That  he  might  sanctify  and  cleanse  it 
with  the  washing  of  water,  by  the  Word."  And,  no  doubt, 
grounded  upon  this,  and  similar  statements  in  Holy  Writ,  is 
that  declaration  of  the  Nicene  creed,  which  has  been  in  use 
in  the  church  of  Christ  since  the  year  339,*  "  I  acknowledge 
one  baptism  for  the  remission  of  sins."  While  in  perfect 
agreement  and  consistency  with  this  belief,  we  are  informed 
that  it  was  the  practice  of  the  Christian  church  in  the  East 
to  sing  after  baptism  the  thirty-second  Psalm,  "  Blessed  is  he 
whose  transgression  is  forgiven,  whose  sin  is  covered,"&c., 
and,  according  to  St.  Ambrose,  that  "  the  Priest  spoke  to  the 
person  baptized  in  this  manner,  God  the  Father  Almighty, 
who  hath  regenerated  thee  by  water  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  and 
forgiven  thee  thy  sins,"t  &c.,  clearly  showing  that  the  primi- 
tive church  took  for  granted  that  the  spiritual  effects,  the 
"  inward  and  spiritual  grace"  of  the  sacrament  were  its  ac- 
companiments in  every  case  in  which  it  was  "  rightly  re- 
ceived." Indeed  St.  Paul  himself  assumes,  with  the  same 
feeling  of  Christian  charity,  the  same  truth  with  regard  to  his 
Galatian  converts,  when  he  says,  "  As  many  of  you  as  have 
been  baptized  into  Christ  have  put  on  Christ."J  And  to  show 
that  in  this  passage  the  Apostle  does  not  intend  by  the  phrase 

*  Bishop  Sparrow.  t  Dean  Comber, 

t  See  the  very  striking  observations  upon  this  text  in  Luther's  Com- 
mentary on  Galatiaiis  iii.  17. 


94  DISCOURSEVII. 

"  putting  on  Christ,"  merely  to  express  that  they  had  adopted 
a  Christian  profession,  he  continues,  "  there  is  neither  Jew 
nor  Greek,  there  is  neither  bond  nor  free,  there  is  neither 
male  nor  female,  for  ye  are  all  one  in  Christ  Jesus.  And  if 
ye  be  Christ's,  then  are  ye  Abraham's  seed  and  heirs  ac- 
cording to  the  promise."  In  which  passage  the  Apostle 
evidently  intends  by"  putting  on  Christ,"  the  putting  him  on 
spiritually,  as  well  as  professedly,  the  being  "  renewed  in  the 
spirit  of  their  mind,"  and  the  putting  on  "  the  new  man  which 
after  God  is  created  in  righteousness  and  true  holiness."  So 
far  is  he  from  saying  this  in  a  merely  general  manner  of  the 
Galatians  as  a  church,  that  he  adopts  a  form  of  speech  when 
he  says,  "  As  many  of  you,"  which  clearly  individualizes,  as 
much  as  our  church  does  when  she  teaches  us  to  thank  God 
for  the  bestowal  of  the  blessing  in  every  particular  case.  And 
yet  it  would  indeed  be  difficult  to  imagine  that  of  all  these 
Galatian  converts,  not  one  was  ever  found  who  deserted  the 
faith  to  which  he  had  been  brought,  or  forfeited  the  spiritual 
blessings  of  which  he  had  at  baptism  been  made  partaker,  or, 
as  our  church  expresses  it,  "  fell  from  grace  given." 

The  great  duty  then  of  every  Christian  parent  in  bringing 
his  child  to  the  water  of  baptism,  which  we  should  deduce 
from  the  encouraging,  and,  as  we  trust,  scriptural  view  of  this 
holy  sacrament,  is  to  "  draw  near  with  a  true  heart  in  full 
assurance  of  faith,"  asking  great  things  of  God,  and  expecting 
great  things  from  Him,  and  believing  that  He  who  instituted 
this  holy  sacrament  as  a  sign  and  seal  of  spiritual  regenera- 
tion, will,  when  it  is  "  rightly  received,"  be  present  by  his 
Divine  Spirit,  to  accompany  it  then  and  there  by  the  bless- 
ing of  which  it  is  the  seal  and  sign,  that  the  child  so  offered 
to  God  may  be  then  filled  with  the  Spirit  of  God,  may  be 
made  a  new  creature  in  Christ  Jesus,  and  may  by  God's 
grace  "  continue  Christ's  faithful  soldier  and  servant  unto  his 
life's  end." 

"  Would  to  God,"  my  brethren,  to  adopt  the  language. of 
an  eminent  prelate  who  has  occasionally  addressed  you  from 


ARTICLE     XXVI  I.  95 

this  place,  "  that  this  truth  were  better  understood,  and  this 
primitive,  this  reasonable  baptism  more  generally  practised ! 
Then  we  should  not  find  so  many  who,  though  born  of  water 
as  far  as  concerns  the  baptismal  rite,  are  evidently  not  made 
new  creatures  by  the  Spirit  who  renews  and  sanctifies  the 
soul."*  We  say  then,  and  we  could  wish  that  the  view 
which  we  have  been  endeavouring  to  take  of  this  important 
spiritual  ordinance,  might  be  deeply  impressed  upon  the  mind 
of  every  Christian  parent,  for  we  believe  that  it  would  tend 
greatly,  not  only  to  improve  the  feelings  with  which  all  would 
bring  their  children  to  the  baptismal  font,  but  to  improve 
also  the  manner  in  which  all  would  educate  their  children 
from  their  very  earliest  years,  in  the  heartfelt  love  of  that  God 
and  Saviour  who  had  already  done  such  great  things  for 
them.  We  say  Christian  parents,  look  well  to  your  privileges, 
rejoice  in  them,  plead  them  in  prayer  before  God,  and  act 
upon  them  in  all  your  intercourse  with  your  children.  Tell 
them  they  have  a  God  who  loves  them,  a  Saviour  who  died 
for  them,  a  Holy  Spirit  who  sanctifies  them  ;  be  instant  with 
them  in  season  and  out  of  season,  that  they  in  return  may 
love,  and  serve,  and  imitate  their  Divine  and  blessed  Master. 
We  dare  not  assert  that  in  every  such  case,  the  event  will  be, 
that  your  children  shall  really  inherit  the  kingdom  of  heaven, 
because  we  know  that  "sons  of  Belial"  were  found  both  in 
Eli's  and  in  Samuel's  family,  but  we  doubt  not  that  it  will  be 
so  in  an  incalculably  greater  number  of  cases  than  most  Chris- 
tians have  faith  enough  to  believe ;  and  we  know  not  that 
there  is  a  single  instance  either  in  Scripture,  or  in  the  record 
of  Christian  experience,  where  such  means  have  been  faith- 
fully and  perseveringly  employed,  and  any  reason  has  been 
left  us  to  fear  that  the  event  has  been  otherwise. 

We  have  now,  however,  what  may  appear  to  some  a  diffi- 
cult task,  to  reconcile  the  language  of  our  church  in  her 
Catechism,  in  her  Baptismal  service,  and  in  the  Article  before 

*  Bishop  of  Chester's  Lectures  on  St.  John,  p.  83. 


96  DISCOURSEV1I. 

us,  with  the  lives,  alas !  of  too  many  of  her  professed  mem- 
bers. It  has  often  been,  and  it  no  doubt  in  justice  fairly  may 
be  asked,  Whence  comes  it  if  every  individual  member  of 
the  church  of  England  be  thus  spoken  of  as  regenerated,  or 
born  anew  of  the  Spirit,  so  many  in  after  life,  evidence  no 
signs  of  any  such  change  having  ever  taken  place  at  all  ?  To 
this  we  reply  that  although  we  believe  that  our  church  speaks 
in  the  language  of  Scripture  and  of  truth,  when  she  thus  iden- 
tifies baptism  with  the  "  washing  of  regeneration,"  we  believe 
also,  that  she  speaks  only  in  the  language  of  charity  and  of 
hope,  when  she  afterwards  trusts  that  every  baptized  member 
of  the  communion  has  fulfilled  the  terms  of  his  baptismal 
covenant,  has  nurtured  the  seed  of  Divine  grace,  and  as  she 
originally  asked  for  him,  has  "  ever  remained  in  the  number 
of  God's  faithful  and  elect  children."  Precisely  as  in  her 
other  sacrament,  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  she,  in  the  same  judg- 
ment of  charity,  assumes  that  her  members  "  have  duly  re- 
ceived those  holy  mysteries,"*  and  in  consequence  assures 
them,  that  they  "  are  very  members  in  the  mystical  body 
of  the  Son  of  God,  and  heirs  through  hope  of  his  everlasting 
kingdom." 

Now  it  is  perfectly  true,  that  although  in  the  service  of 
this  solemn  sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper  we  speak  thus, 
and  assume  thus  without  the  least  hesitation,  that  "  all  we" 
who  approach  the  table  of  the  Lord  "  have  duly  received  these 
holy  mysteries,"  yet  that,  with  the  utmost  stretch  of  Christian 
charity,  we  must  still  fear  that  there  are  many  at  all  times 
in  the  Christian  church,  who,  in  the  language  of  the  twenty- 
ninth  Article,  "  do  carnally  and  visibly  press  with  their  teeth 
the  sacrament  of  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ,  yet  in  no  wise 
are  they  partakers  of  Christ.''  No  enlightened  Christian, 
however,  is  offended  at  the  discrepancy  between  the  language 
and  the  fact,  simply  because  we  know  that  the  church  is  not 
now  gifted  with  the  power  of  "  discerning  spirits,""  or  of 

*  Communion  Service. 


ARTICLE    XXVII.  97 

reading  the  heart;  and  therefore  is  not  only  fully  justified, 
but  is  bound  in  Christian  charity  to  hope  the  best  of  all,  and 
of  each  of  her  members. 

This,  indeed,  appears  to  be  the  key  to  the  right  understand- 
ing of  the  motive  and  intention  of  our  church  in  all  her  ser- 
vices.* It  is  obvious  that  if  the  church  have  but  one  set  of 
services  for  her  members,  she  must  so  construct  those  services 
as  to  apply  to  the  case  of  her  real  and  spiritual,  and  not  her 
nominal  members.  Bearing  this  in  view,  it  is  not  remarkable 
that  she  should  act  in  faith  upon  the  declaration  of  her  God, 
that  his  "  promises  are  to  us  and  to  our  seed,"  and  conclud- 
ing that  the  parents  and  the  sponsors  of  the  children  presented 
at  the  baptismal  font  are  themselves  among  the"  faithful,  de- 
voted, prayerful  servants  of  the  most  High,  she  is  bound  to 
expect  that  the  infant  will  "  rightly  receive"  Christian  bap- 
tism, that  God  will  hear  and  answer  petitions  so  scriptural, 
so  reasonable,  so  entirely  for  the  honour  and  glory  of  his  own 
great  and  holy  name,  and  that  the  child  will  *'  lead  the  rest 
of  his  life  according  to  this  beginning." 

That  she  is  often  disappointed,  that  in  after  years  we  are 
compelled  to  mourn  over  the  alienation  from  God,  of  those 
over  whom  as  infants,  we  have  united  in  the  prayers  and 
thanksgivings  of  the  church,  only  proves  that  while  our  church 
is  true  to  her  God,  and  to  his  revealed  word,  by  suppressing 
nothing  of  all  the  blessings  which  he  has  promised  to  his 
people,  we  parents  are  in  too  many  cases  untrue  to  the  best 
interests  of  our  children,  and  to  our  own  souls,  by  not  coming 
up  to  the  baptismal  font  with  more  enlarged  and  scriptural 
views  of  these  blessings,  and  that  our  children  have  not  im- 
proved the  gift  of  God  which  is  in  them,  but  have  permitted 


*  E.  g.  In  the  much  controverted  portion  of  her  Burial  Service,  where, 
"in  sure  and  certain  hope  of  the  resurrection  to  eternal  life,"  firmly  fixed 
in  the  hearts  of  her  members,  they  are  taught  to  offer  their  hearty  thanfeS 
to  God  for  delivering  their  brethren  out  of  tho  misery  of  this  sinful  world, 
— a  thanksgiving  which  can  only  be  consistently  offered  in  the  spirit  of 
charity  and  of  hope. 

9 


98  DISCOURSE    VI 1. 

the  holy  seed  to  remain  unwatered  by  the  dews  of  the  Spirit, 
for  which  they  have  neglected  to  ask ;  and  uncultured  by  the 
aid  of  the  great  Husbandman,  whom  they  have  forborne  to 
seek. 

We  must  now  pass  on  to  the  important  and  individual  ap- 
plication of  this  high  subject.  This,  then,  brings  us  to  the 
great  practical  question  in  which  all  are  interested,  not  merely 
\ve  who  are  parents  in  the  welfare  of  our  children,  but  all  in 
the  welfare  of  their  own  souls.  I  address  myself  then  to  you, 
my  brethren,  as  baptized  members  of  the  church  of  England, 
and  say  to  each  individual  among  you,  your  church  once  be- 
held you  brought  as  one,  "  by  nature  born  in  sin,  and  the 
child  of  wrath,"  to  the  water  of  baptism,  and  there  having 
offered  her  prayers  that  you  might  undergo  that  spiritual 
change,  without  which,  as  Christ  himself  hath  said,  you 
"cannot  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  God,"  she  returned  her 
thanksgivings  that  you  had  undergone  this  change,  had  been 
born  anew  of  water  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  made  a  child  of 
God  by  the  Spirit  of  adoption,  and  incorporated  into  the 
church  of  the  Redeemer.  Now,  brethren,  we  require  you  to 
ask  yourselves,  honestly  and  conscientiously,  and  as  in  the 
presence  of  Him  who  seeth  the  heart,  whether  in  your  own 
case,  this  reasonable  belief  of  your  church  has  been  fulfilled ; 
and  that  you  may  be  enabled  to  answer  the  inquiry,  remem- 
ber the  words  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  himself,  "  That  which 
is  born  of  the  flesh  is  flesh,  and  that  which  is  born  of  the 
Spirit  is  Spirit."  Have  you,  then,  like  Samuel  and  like 
Timothy,  been  so  born  of  the  Spirit,  from  your  earliest  in- 
fancy, that  the  unholy  and  sinful  pleasures  of  the  flesh  have 
possessed  no  hold  upon  you,  that  you  have  not  indulged 
them,  have  not  tolerated  them,  have  not  allowed  them,  even 
for  a  moment,  to  gather  strength  by  your  supineness  or  in- 
difference, but  have  been  led  to  seek  a  power  greater  than 
your  own  to  repel  and  to  vanquish  them  ?  And,  further  than 
this,  have  you  reason  to  hope  that  spiritual  things  have  ever 
been  your  delight,  the  real  element  in  which  your  souls  would 


A  RT  I  CLE    XXVII.  99 

live,  and  in  which  alone  they  can  breathe  freely  and  unre- 
strainedly ?  If  these  things  be  so,  "  happy  are  ye  ;  for  the 
Spirit  of  glory  and  of  God  resteth  upon  you ;"  for  then  you 
may  indeed  indulge  the  hope  that  you  have  from  your  earliest 
infancy  been  brought  among  the  spiritual  children  of  the 
family  of  God,  and  educated  for  your  Father's  kingdom. 

But,  perhaps,  such  evidences  as  these  are  wanting.  Then 
would  we  ask,  have  you  the  distinct,  yet  equally  satisfactory 
and  encouraging  feelings,  that  whereas  you  once  were  blind, 
now  you  see ;  that  you  have  been  renewed  by  the  Spirit  of 
God  :  that  old  things  have  passed  away,  that  all  things  have 
become  new  ;  and  that  by  God's  own  free  and  sovereign 
grace  you  have  been  brought  out  of  darkness,  and  misery,  and 
sin,  into  the  glorious  light,  and  liberty,  and  holiness,  of  his  re- 
deemed people  ?  That  you,  through  grace,  have  been  taught 
to  deplore  and  to  forsake  the  sins  and  follies  of  your  youth, 
your  once  cherished  lusts  and  unholy  passions,  and  are  now 
endeavouring,  even  now,  though  it  be  at  the  eleventh  hour,  to 
serve  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  in  all  holiness  and  godliness  of 
living. 

Or,  again,  are  you  conscious  that  this  testimony  also  is 
absent,  that  spiritual  feelings,  the  faith  and  penitence,  the  joy 
and  hope,  of  the  believer,  are  still  to  you  as  unknown  and 
disregarded  things  ;  that  the  world,  and  the  things  of  the 
world,  form  your  home  and  enjoyment :  that  pride  and  vanity, 
sensuality  and  uncharitableness,  or  even  some  of  the  darker 
children  of  the  natural  heart,  are  still,  as  they  have  ever  been, 
the  welcomed  inmates  of  your  bosom  ?  Upon  what  then  do 
you  ground  your  assurance  that  you  are,  at  the  present  mo- 
ment, "  a  member  of  Christ,  a  child  of  God,  and  an  inheritor 
of  the  kingdom  of  heaven  ?"  Upon  your  baptism  ?  Surely 
you  have  not  the  hardihood  to  avow  such  a  conviction.  As 
well  might  Simon  Magus,  who  was  baptized  by  an  Apostle, 
have  contravened  the  decision  of  St.  Peter,  "I  perceive  that 
thou  art  in  the  gall  of  bitterness,  and  in  the  bond  of  iniquity," 
by  pointing  to  the  waters  of  baptism,  as  that  any  baptized 


100  DISCOURSE     VII. 

member  of  the  Christian  church  should  take  comfort  to  him- 
self while  in  a  state  of  alienation  from  God,  and  disobedience 
to  his  commands,  and  indifference  to  the  Saviour  of  the  world, 
from  having  once  been  made  the  subject  of  the  prayers  and 
thanksgivings  of  his  church.  No,  brethren,  "by  their  fruits 
ye  shall  know  them  ;"  there  is  no  other  test  here,  there  will 
be  none  other  on  the  great  day  of  account  Living  thus,  and 
dying  thus,  it  is  vain,  utterly  vain,  for  you  to  hope,  when 
standing  before  the  bar  of  God,  that  it  will  avail  you  to  plead 
baptismal  regeneration.  Where  are  its  fruits  ?  what  have 
been  its  effects  ?  where  is  the  renewed  heart  ?  **  the  death  unto 
sin,"  the  "  new  birth  unto  righteousness,"  the  love  to  the  Sa- 
viour, which  must  ever  be  features  in  the  character  of  "  a 
member  of  Christ  ?"  where  the  love  to  God,  which  must 
ever  be  the  feeling  of  "  a  child  of  God  ?"  where  the  meetness 
to  be  partaker  of  the  worship,  and  the  joys,  and  the  services 
of  the  heavenly  temple,  which  must  ever  mark  "  an  inheritor 
of  the  kingdom  of  heaven  ?"  Alas  !  are  all  these  absent,  and 
yet  do  you  imagine  that  no  total  change  of  heart,  and  affections, 
and  mind,  and  life,  in  you  can  be  required  ?  Banish  for  ever 
such  a  delusion,  or  it  will  be  your  ruin.  Be  assured,  if  God 
be  true,  that  if  you  have  lived,  and  are  now  living,  in  sin,  if 
you  have  entirely  or  partially  forgotten  God,  and  been  content 
to  receive  the  wages,  and  to  act  as  the  servants  of  the  "  world, 
the  flesh,  and  the  devil,"  his  bitterest  enemies,  no  slight  im- 
provement, no  merely  moral  reformation,  will  avail  you.  You 
may  denominate  the  change  which  God  requires  of  you,  by 
any  term  ;  you  may  speak  of  it  in  any  language  you  prefer ; 
we  will  not  contend  for  names,  but  things  ;  a  change,  an  entire 
change,  must  be  wrought  in  you,  or  you  will  not  see  the 
kingdom  of  God.  *'  The  whole  head  is  sick,  and  the  whole 
heart  faint,"  even  unto  death,  and  unless  the  whole  head  be 
enlightened  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  and  the  whole  heart  re- 
newed by  the  Spirit  of  God,  the  spiritual  death  of  the  present 
hour  will  be  inevitably  succeeded  by  the  eternal  death  of 
banishment  from  God,  and  from  the  presence  of  his  glory. 


ARTICLE    XXVIII.  101 

We  do  then  most  earnestly  exhort  you,  who  have  never  yet 
thought  seriously  of  your  baptismal  covenant,  to  read  over 
carefully  the  service  of  your  church  which  contains  it,  to 
examine  yourselves  by  it,  to  inquire,  before  you  come  to  the 
second  sacrament  of  your  church,  whether  you  have  ever 
been  lastingly  benefited  by  the  spiritual  blessings  of  the  first 
sacrament — whether  your  part  of  the  baptismal  covenant  has 
ever  yet  been  performed — whether  the  devil  and  his  works, 
the  world  and  its  vanities,  the  flesh  and  its  lusts,  have  ever 
yet  been  really  and  conscientiously  renounced — whether,  in 
fact,  you  have  any  sensible  evidence  that  you  have  been  born 
anew  of  the  Spirit ;  and  if  not,  to  be  most  earnest  in  perse- 
vering prayer  to  God,  that  you  may  be  a  partaker  of  that 
spiritual  renewal,  without  which  the  kingdom  of  heaven  will 
be  as  certainly,  as  effectually,  closed  against  the  baptized  and 
nominal  worshipper  of  God,  as  against  the  most  dark,  and 
obdurate,  and  guilty,  of  the  unbaptized  worshippers  of  wood 
and  stone.  For  never  did  the  God  of  truth  declare  a  more 
solemn,  a  more  awakening  truth  than  this,  "  Except  a  man  be 
born  again,  he  cannot  see  the  kingdom  of  God." 


DISCOURSE   VIII. 

1  COR.  x.  16. 

The  cup  of  blessing  which  we  bless,  is  it  not  the  communion  of  the  blood 
of  Christ  ?  The  bread  which  we  brake,  is  it  not  the  communion  of  the 
body  of  Christ  ? 

THE  Article  which  comes  under  our  present  consideration, 
and  which  will  conclude  the  series,  is  the  twenty-eighth 
Article  of  our  ehurch,  and  treats  upon  the  important  subject 
of  the  Sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper. 

It  will  perhaps  tend  to  the  better  comprehension  of  the 
subject  before  us,  if,  as  while  speaking  of  the  other  sacrament, 

9* 


102  DISCOURSE     VIII. 

\ve  shortly  remind  you  of  the  origin  and  institution  of  this 
solemn  rite,  before  we  proceed  to  comment  upon  our  church's 
exposition  of  it. 

Nothing  can  be  more  simple,  and  to  an  awakened  heart,  to 
one  who  has  been  taught  to  love  God,  and  Jesus  Christ  whom 
he  hath  sent,  nothing  can  be  more  affecting,  than  the  Gospel 
narrative  of  the  institution  of  the  Lord's  Supper.  Hear  it, 
then,  in  the  plain  yet  beautiful  language  of  Holy  Writ,  and 
may  all  our  hearts  be  warmed  and  elevated  by  the  views  it 
affords  us,  of  the  wisdom  and  loving  kindness,  the  considera- 
tion and  tender  compassion  of  our  great  High  Priest,  who 
first  appointed  it !  "  And  when  the  even  was  come,"  say  the 
Evangelists,*  "Jesus  sat  down  and  the  twelve  Apostles  with 
him.  And  he  said  unto  them,  With  desire  I  have  desired" 
(or  I  have  most  heartily  desired)  "  to  eat  this  passover  with 
you  before  I  suffer :  For  I  say  unto  you,  I  will  not  any  more 
eat  thereof,  until  it  be  fulfilled  in  the  kingdom  of  God."  This, 
then,  was  the  last  passover  of  which  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
was  to  be  partaker;  it  was  more  than  this,  it  was  the  last 
passover  which  God  would  recognize  in  his  church  ;  it  was 
the  final  rite  of  the  old  dispensation,  the  death  song  of  Judaism. 
All  that  the  passover  had  ever  typified,  was  that  night  to  be 
realized ;  the  true  Paschal  Lamb  was  to  be  delivered  to  the 
slaughterers ;  "  the  blood  of  sprinkling,"  which  should, 
throughout  all  ages,  secure  the  people  of  God,  by  a  spiritual 
deliverance  far  more  wonderful,  and  far  more  blessed,  than 
the  temporal  deliverance  of  the  first-born  in  Egypt,  was  on 
that  coming  morn  to  be  poured  forth  ;  when  he,  the  Lamb  of 
God,  the  great  propitiation,  should  close  the  series  of  fourteen 
hundred  passovers,  by  the  sacrifice  of  himself.  Our  Lord 
then  "  heartily  desired"  to  partake,  for  the  last  time,  of  this 
solemn  rite  with  his  beloved  Apostles  ;  he  "  heartily  desired" 
that  the  shadow  should  pass  away,  and  the  great  and  glorious 
reality,  which  should  bring  pardon  and  peace  to  a  ruined 

*  Matt.  xxvi.  20 ;  Luke  xxii.  14. 


ARTICLE    XXVIII.  103 

world,  should  be  consummated  :  yes,  strange  as  it  may  seem, 
u  he  heartily  desired"  that  coming  meal,  although  a  more 
sorrowful  one  he  had  never  been  partaker  of,  or  one  more 
calculated  to  arm  with  ten-fold  anguish,  the  sufferings  that 
awaited  him. 

And  now  his  desire  had  been  fulfilled,  that  evening  meal 
was  over,  the  final  passover  was  concluded,  and  the  Lord  of 
life,  and  his  disciples,  still  lingered  in  the  supper-room,  de- 
lighting in  that  spiritual  converse  which  made  their  hearts 
burn  within  them,  and  presented  to  them  no  feeble  foretaste 
of  the  communion  of  the  saints  in  bliss.  The  bread  and  wine, 
always  accompaniments  of  the  Jewish  passover,  still  remained 
upon  the  table ;  when  Jesus,  no  doubt  during  some  solemn 
pause  in  the  coversation,  when  all  minds  were  filled  with  the 
thought  of  those  approaching  sorrows,  of  which  our  Lord  had 
on  that  evening,  for  the  first  time  plainly  spoken,  took  up 
the  bread,  and  breaking  it,  and  pouring  forth  his  blessing  upon 
it,  delivered  it  to  his  disciples,  with  these  few,  but  emphatic 
works,  "  Take,  eat ;  this  is  my  body  which  is  given  for  you  ; 
this  do  in  remembrance  of  me."  Likewise  also  "  he  took  the 
cup,"  and  blessing  that  in  like  manner,  "  he  gave  it  to  them, 
saying,  Drink  ye  all  of  it."  And  he  said  unto  them,  "  This 
cup  is  the  new  testament,  in  my  blood,  which  is  shed  for 
you,"*  and  "  for  many,  for  the  remission  of  sins."t  "  Verily 
I  say  unto  you,  I  will  drink  no  more  henceforth  of  this  fruit 
of  the  vine,  until  that  day  when  I  drink  it  new  with  you  in 
my  Father's  kingdom." 

How  simple,  how  touchingly  beautiful  is  the  whole  of  this 
Gospel  narrative.  Our  Lord  well  knew,  not  only  the  corrup- 
tion, but  the  coldness,  and  ingratitude  of  the  human  heart. 
He  knew  that  years,  nay  centuries  must  pass  away,  and  that 
the  history  of  his  dying  love  should  fall  upon  men's  ears,  and 
on  men's  hearts,  like  a  tale  of  other  times,  in  which  they  were 
little  interested ;  while  even  to  the  few,  the  happy  few,  who 

*  Luke  xxii.  20.  t  Malt.  xxvi.  28. 


104  DISCOURSE     VIII. 

should  in  all  ages  adore  and  venerate  that  Saviour's  name, 
there  would  be  still  the  strong  temptation  to  suffer  their  hearts 
to  dwell  upon  "  the  things  which  are  seen  and  are  temporal," 
to  the  frequent  forgetfulness  of  those,  which  "  are  not  seen 
and  are  eternal."  To  meet,  then,  this  never-ceasing,  never- 
slumbering  tendency  of  our  corrupt  and  fallen  nature,  was  no 
doubt  the  primary  intention  of  the  striking  incident  we  are 
considering.  "  This  do  in  remembrance  of  me."  And  mark 
how  small  a  thing  it  was  that  the  Saviour  of  the  world  re- 
quested of  his  followers ;  as  though  he  had  said,  When  in 
times  to  come,  you  assemble  together  in  my  name  and  in  my 
worship,  I  ask  of  you  no  great,  no  costly  sacrifice  ;  I  only  ask 
to  live  in  your  memory  and  in  your  love.  I  only  desire  to 
see,  and  to  let  an  unbelieving  world  see,  that  in  every  gene- 
ration, throughout  all  time,  there  shall  still  be  some  who  will 
remember  the  transactions  of  this  awful  night,  who  will  adore 
and  love  the  despised  Saviour,  and  acknowledge  him  in  this, 
the  lowest  point  of  his  humiliation,  as  their  Redeemer  and 
their  God.  Add,  then,  this  little  act,  this  slight  memorial  of 
all  the  sorrow  and  the  anguish  you  will  this  night  witness,  of 
all  the  agonies  of  that  scene,  from  which  to-morrow's  sun 
will  hide  his  face,  add  only  this  slight  memorial  from  time  to 
time,  to  your  accustomed  sacrifice  of  prayer  and  praise ;  eat 
one  piece  of  broken  bread,  and  drink  one  drop  of  wine,  in  the 
name  of  the  Crucified.  Do  this  in  remembrance  of  me,  at 
those  your  solemn  festivals,  from  this  my  hour  of  suffering, 
until  I  come  again  in  peace  and  receive  you  unto  myself. 

Who  could  resist  such  an  appeal  ?  who  disobey  such  a 
command  ? — neglect  so  easy,  so  merciful  a  request  ?  It  were 
impossible.  More  than  eighteen  centuries  have  passed  away 
since  in  that  upper  chamber,  in  some  obscure  house  in  the 
city  of  Jerusalem,  the  words  which  conveyed  the  request, 
were  spoken  by  that  lowly  sufferer  to  his  broken-hearted  fol- 
lowers ;  and  is  it  too  much  to  say,  that  "  their  sound  is  gone 
out  into  all  lands,  and  their  words  into  the  ends  of  the  world  ?" 
From  that  night  to  the  present  hour,  all  ranks,  all  classes 


ARTICLE    XXVIII.  105 

of  Christian  believers,  have  united  in  fulfilling  this  last  request 
of  their  Redeemer.  Kings  have  descended  from  their  thrones, 
and  laid  aside  their  crowns,  and  for  a  time  forgotten  all  their 
earthly  pageantry,  and  knelt  in  reverence  to  the  King  of 
kings,  and  been  partakers  of  his  humble  feast.  High  and  low, 
rich  and  poor,  all  who  name  the  name  of  Christ,  have  remem- 
bered, and  rejoiced  to  remember,  his  dying  love,  by  accepting 
this  his  dying  invitation.  Century  after  century  has  passed 
away,  the  monuments  of  human  greatness  have  mouldered 
into  dust,  the  laws  inscribed  upon  tablets  of  brass  have 
perished,  dynasties  and  empires  have  risen  and  fallen,  and  are 
forgotten,  and  these  few  simple  sentences — this  short,  affect- 
ing memorial,  has  outlived  them  all — never  obliterated,  never 
even  suspended  ;  no  single  week,  we  might  perhaps  with 
perfect  truth  assert,  no  single  day,  has  ever  yet  passed  by, 
which  did  not  witness  some  little  assemblage  of  the  followers 
of  the  Redeemer  "  doing  this  in  remembrance  of  him  ;"  and 
thus,  as  the  Apostle  says,  "  showing  forth  the  Lord's  death 
until  he  comes." 

Can  we  then  wonder,  since  such  was  the  origin  of  this 
holy  service,  that  in  the  primitive  church  it  was  partaken  of 
every  day  ?  While  the  person  of  the  Redeemer  was  fresh 
in  men's  recollections,  while  the  transactions  of  that  awful 
night  were  vividly  impressed  upon  their  feelings,  it  is  difficult 
to  conceive  a  single  day  passing  over  them  without  the  last 
accents  of  the  Saviour's  voice,  "  Do  this  in  remembrance  of 
me,"  sounding  in  their  ears.  While  the  memory  of  that  "  man 
of  sorrows,"  toiling  up  the  hill  of  Calvary,  bearing  his  cross, 
and  soon  after  stretched  in  unutterable  agonies  upon  it,  showing 
what  he  was  content  to  "  do  in  remembrance"  of  them,  lived 
strongly  upon  their  hearts,  it  is  difficult  to  imagine  that  a  day 
could  have  gone  by,  without  their  longing  for  the  hour  at 
which  they  might  commemorate  such  agonies,  such  love,  by 
complying  with  the  last  request  of  their  departed  Master. 
Brethren,  the  wonder  is, — and  if  men's  hearts  were  what 
they  should  be,  such  could  have  never  been, — the  wonder  is, 


106  DISCOURSE    VIII. 

that  from  days,  the  celebration  of  this  service  should  have  been 
transferred  to  weeks,  and  from  weeks  to  months,  and  from 
months  to  some  few  widely  scattered  days  of  festival,  between 
whose  long  and  dreary  intervals,  the  heart  of  the  recipient  has 
ample  time  to  grow  cold,  and  hard,  and  careless,  to  the  bless- 
ings he  so  rarely  commemorates.  Until  at  last  this  service 
of  love  is  dropped  aside,  like  some  forgotten  and  unprofitable 
ceremony,  to  be  again  no  more  remembered.  Stay,  did  I  say 
no  more  remembered  ?  I  greatly  wronged  the  power,  not  of 
memory,  but  of  conscience.  It  is  remembered  :  how  awfully 
and,  alas  !  usually  how  unprofitably  remembered,  let  death- 
beds tell.  There,  when  the  last  sad  hour  is  hastening  on, 
when  all  is  doubt,  and  uncertainty,  and  terror — when  every 
human  aid  has  been  sought,  and  yet  all  baffled,  utterly  b  iffled, 
and  obliged  to  recede  before  the  advancing  step  of  man's  great 
enemy,  there  is  it  well  remembered,  while  some  such  thoughts 
as  these  pass  solemnly  before  the  mind :  "  There  was  one 
who  died  for  sinners,  and  in  whose  name,  I  also  was  baptized, 
and  to  whose  church  I  also  nominally  belonged.  He  was 
once  in  circumstances  such  as  I  am  now  ;  and  as  he  stood 
upon  the  brink  of  eternity,  he  left  one  last,  one  small  request, 
to  every  individual  who  should  thereafter  follow  him ;  that 
request  I  have  been  well  acquainted  with  even  from  my 
earliest  years,  have,  month  after  month,  heard  it  reiterated  by 
his  servants,  and  have,  month  after  month,  deliberately  turned 
my  back  upon  the  opportunity  offered  me  of  fulfilling  it.  Send, 
send  quickly  for  a  minister  of  Christ ;  let  me  in  this  last  hour 
compensate  for  thirty,  forty,  fifty  years  of  gross  neglect  and 
disobedience  to  Him,  whom  I  shall  soon  see  face  to  face !" 
Most  wretched  and  miserable  substitute,  to  offer  the  obedience 
of  an  hour,  instead  of  the  devotedness,  the  affection,  the  holy 
acknowledgments  of  a  life. 

Brethren,  from  what  you  have  this  day  seen  of  the  institu- 
tion of  this  blessed  ordinance,  I  leave  it  to  your  own  reflection 
to  answer -the  inquiry — Does  this  appear  to  you  to  be  in  any 
degree  the  intention  or  the  object  of  the  ordinance — to  lull  the 


ARTICLE    XXVIII.  107 

fears  of  a  departing  sinner,  to  give  an  anodyne  to  conscience, 
when  for  the  first  time  awakened  to  a  sense  of  sin  and  danger  ? 
No  two  things  were  ever  more  at  variance,  than  is  the  scrip- 
tural, and  profitable  use  of  the  holy  sacrament,  with  this  un- 
scriptural  abuse  of  it.  It  was  intended  to  commemorate  the 
dying  love  of  the  Redeemer,  by  those  whose  hearts  are  filled 
with  the  consciousness  of  its  unutterable  value  ;  not  to  pro- 
pitiate his  anger,  by  those  who  have  never  thought  of  him,  or 
cared  for  him,  until  they  knew  that  shortly  they  were  to  be 
dragged  before  his  judgment-seat.  It  was  intended  to  cheer, 
and  strengthen  the  living,  while  in  the  daily  conflict,  and  race, 
and  struggle  of  this  world's  duties  ;  not  to  pacify  the  dying, 
by  speaking  peace  where  peace  is  not.  It  was  intended  as 
a  feast  of  love,  by  which  all  Christians  might  enjoy  spiritual 
communion  with  Christ,  their  living  Head,  and  with  each 
other  as  the  members  of  the  same  body,  and  the  children  of 
the  same  family,  in  anticipation  of  that  far  more  glorious  feast, 
where  the  Lord  shall  be  bodily  present,  and  whence  no  child 
of  his  shall  be  excluded  ;  but  it  was  not  intended,  for  the 
selfish  meal  of  the  departing  solitary,  who  knows  not,  who 
cares  not  for  Christian  intercourse,  or  for  the  body  of  the 
Lord's  believing  people,  toiling  and  travailing  upon  earth ; 
who  has  never  held  an  hour's  communion  with  them,  but 
who  now  asks  a  hasty  viaticum  for  his  last  dread  journey, 
lest  his  "  feet  stumble  upon  the  dark  mountains,"*  and  he  faint 
by  the  way. 

Let  us  now  turn  to  the  Article,  that  we  may  see  the  inten- 
tions of  this  solemn  ordinance,  as  they  are  there  expressed, 
upon  the  authority  of  our  church. 

XXVIII.  Of  the  Lord's  Supper. 

"  The  Supper  of  the  Lord  is  not  only  a  sign  of  the  love 
that  Christians  ought  to  have  among  themselves,  one  to 

*  Jer.  xiii.  16. 


108  DISCOURSE    VIII. 

another."  Our  church,  therefore,  acknowledges  that  it  is  the 
sign  of  this  "Communion  of  Saints,"  by  which  they  hold 
fellowship  with  each  other,  and  with  Christ,  their  living  Head, 
but  that  it  is  not  only  this,  "  but  rather,"  she  continues, "  is  a 
sacrament  of  our  redemption  by  Christ's  death  ;  insomuch 
that,  to  such  as  rightly,  worthily,  and  with  faith  receive  the 
same,  the  bread  which  we  break  is  a  partaking  of  the  body 
of  Christ,  and  likewise  the  cup  of  blessing  a  partaking  of  the 
blood  of  Christ." 

This  declaration  is  evidently  founded  upon  the  words  of 
the  text,  "  The  cup  of*  blessing  which  we  bless,  is  it  not  a 
communion"  (or  "  a  communication*  to  us")  "  of  the  blood 
of  Christ ;  the  bread  which  we  break,  is  it  not  the  communion 
of  the  body  of  Christ  ?"  By  which  is  clearly  intended  that 
great  and  mysterious  truth,  elsewhere  asserted  by  our  church, 
that  "The  body  and  blood  of  Christ  are  verily  and  indeed 
taken  and  received  by  the  faithful  in  the  Lord's  Supper."! 

It  is  not  necessary  in  this  congregation,  to  demonstrate  the 
difference  between  this  view  of  the  church  of  England,  and 
the  transubstantiation  of  the  Romish  church,  or  the  consub- 
v  stantiation  of  the  Lutheran  church  ;  that  it  should  ever  have 
been  confounded  with  them,  as  it  has  been  with  the  latter, 
even  in  the  high  places  of  the  land,  is  only  a  proof,  that  men 
of  great  talent,  and  of  great  acquirement,  are,  unhappily,  often 
ignorant  of  some  of  the  very  first  truths  of  Christianity,  and 
of  some  of  the  plainest  and  most  important  doctrines  of  their 
own  church.  All  that  our  church  asserts,  is  simply  this,  that 
when  "  received  by  the  faithful,"  and  "  rightly  received,"  for 
you  will  observe  that  she  limits  all  the  benefits  in  this  case, 
as  in  baptism,  to  the  right  reception  of  the  Sacrament,  there 
is  a  strengthening  and  refreshing  of  our  souls  by  the  spiritual 
communication  to  us  of  the  body  and  the  blood  of  Christ,  as 
there  is  in  the  common  course  of  nature  a  strengthening  and 
refreshing  of  our  bodies  by  partaking  of  "bread  and  wine." 

*  Archbishop  Seeker.  t  Church  Catechism. 


ARTICLE     XXVIII.  1C9 

When  we  come  to  the  Lord's  table,  in  that  state  of  penitence 
and  faith,  to  which  Christ  has  invited  all  his  people,  and  to 
which,  by  his  good  Spirit,  he  is  daily  and  hourly  bringing 
them,  then,  and  then  only,  do  we  reap  the  good  of  the  ordi- 
nance ;  for  then,  and  then  only  are  we  spiritually  partakers 
of  the  body  and  blood  of  our  Redeemer.  "  Then  we  dwell 
in  Christ,  and  Christ  in  us;  we  are  one  with  Christ,  and 
Christ  with  us  ;"  we  are  more  than  ever  closely  united  to 
the  Saviour  ;  he  is  formed  in  us  "  the  hope  of  glory,"*  we 
receive  anew  the  pardon  of  our  sins,  the  consolation  and 
strengthening  of  our  souls,  and  find  experimentally  that  our 
Lord's  own  declaration  is  a  blessed  truth,  "  My  flesh  is  meat 
indeed,  and  my  blood  is  drink  indeed."  Coming  to  the  cele- 
bration of  this  high  festival,  then,  "  rightly,  worthily,  and  with 
faith,"  our  church  assures  us  that  these  good  things  shall  not 
be  withholden  from  any  individual  amongst  us,  but  are  the 
heritage  of  us  and  of  our  children  for  ever. 

Are  there  any  among  you  who  will  feel  that  this  one  word 
"worthily"  strikes  at  the  root  of  all  the  encouragement,  and 
destroys  all  the  comfort,  that  has  gone  before.  This  is  simply 
from  a  misconception  of  the  requirements  of  that  word  :  this 
is  from  affixing  a  meaning  to  the  term  "  unworthily,"!  which 
the  Apostle,  who  first  made  use  of  it,  never  did.  Thus  we 
find  some  among  you  declaring,  "  so  long  as  I  am  engaged  in 
my  present  occupations,  I  can  never  worthily  approach  the 
table  of  the  Lord  !"  Others,  again,  "  So  long  as  I  am  sur- 
rounded by  the  cares  of  a  large  family,  or  by  the  domestic 
troubles  to  which  I  am  exposed,  I  should  not  be  a  welcome 
guest !"  Dear  brethren,  there  never  was  any  thing  more  false 
and  futile,  than  such  objections  as  these.  Was  the  Saviour, 
when  he  spake  the  words,  "  This  do  in  remembrance  of  me," 
surrounded  by  men  of  leisure,  by  men  unencumbered  by 
worldly  cares,  and  earthly  occupations  ;  or  by  men  who  had 
no  domestic  troubles,  no  family  anxieties  ?  Far  from  it.  Is 

*  Col.  i.  27.  t  1  Cor.  xi.  27,  29. 

10 


110  DISCOURSE    VII  I. 

not  one  of  the  first  things  which  we  hear  respecting  the  dis- 
ciples, after  the  resurrection  of  their  Lord,  that  they  returned 
to  their  usual  avocations,  and  were  toiling  all  night  long  upon 
the  sea  of  Galilee  ?*  Are  you  more  heavily  hurdened  wiih  this 
world's  business  now,  than  they  were  then  ?  Can  you  say  as 
they  could  say,  "  Even  unto  this  present  hour,  we  both  hunger, 
and  thirst,  and  are  naked,  and  buffeted,  and  have  no  certain 
dwelling-place,  and  labour,  working  with  our  own  hands  ?" 
Or,  again,  was  the  Lord  of  life  himself  so  entirely  free  from  all 
domestic  anxiety,  when  at  the  very  hour  of  which  we  speak  he 
had  a  widowed  mother,  unprovided  with  a  home,  who  was  to 
occupy  his  thoughts  even  upon  the  cross,  and  through  whose 
soul  the  sufferings  of  her  only  Son  should  on  that  coming  morn- 
ing pierce  as  with  a  sword  ?t  No !  never  since  the  hour  when 
this  high  and  holy  solemnity  was  first  imagined,  have  twelve 
men  with  hearts  more  filled  with  sorrow,  with  anxiety,  with 
trouble,  and  with  darkest  apprehension  of  the  gloomy  future, 
met  around  the  table  of  the  Lord,  than  they  who  then  sat 
down  to  its  first  and  holiest  celebration.  If  these,  then,  be 
your  excuses,  brethren,  learn  that  they  form  most  excellent 
reasons  for  your  constant  attendance  upon  this  holy  ordinance, 
but  not  a  shadow  of  an  argument  do  they  furnish  for  staying 
away.  If  you  are  in  trouble,  here  you  may  find  a  solace;  if 
in  difficulty,  guidance :  if  in  anxiety,  peace.  How  many  a 
full  heart  has  gone  up  to  the  table  of  the  Lord,  overwhelmed 
with  a  burden  which  it  was  totally  incompetent  to  bear,  and 
at  that  table  has  been  able  to  cast  all,  all  without, exception 
and  without  reserve,  upon  the  Lord  of  the  feast,  and  has  gone 
back  again,  comforted  and  rejoicing. 

Much  harm  has  been  done,  by  good  men,  upon  this  subject, 
by  holding  out  a  degree  of  worthiness,  as  essential  to  the  due 
reception  of  these  holy  mysteries,  which  neither  the  Scripture 
nor  the  church  has  ever  hinted  at.  All  that  the  Word  of  God 
says  upon  the  necessary  degree  of  preparation,  is  simply  this  : 

*  John  xxi.  3.  t  See  Luke  ii.  35. 


ARTICLE     XXVIII.  Ill 

"  Let  a  man  examine  himself,  and  so  let  him  eat  of  that  bread 
and  drink  of  that  cup."  All  that  the  church  responds  to  this 
is,  let  them  "examine  themselves,  whether  they  repent  them 
truly  of  their  former  sins,  steadfastly  purpose  to  lead  a  new 
life,  have  a  lively  faith  in  God's  mercy  through  Christ,  with 
a  thankful  remembrance  of  his  death,  and  be  in  charity  with 
all  men."*  Now  we  would  ask,  is  there  a  single  word  in 
this  statement,  which  ought  to  act  as  a  prohibition  to  any  indi- 
vidual who  feels  a  real  repentance  for  sin,  a  true  faith  in  the 
Saviour,  and  a  grateful  recollection,  for  all  the  blessings 
treasured  up  for  him  in  Christ  Jesus  ?  In  short,  for  any 
penitent  and  believing  sinner,  who  is  desiring  to  live  to  God 
here,  and  to  live  with  God  hereafter  ?  Is  there  a  word  which 
speaks  of  high  Christian  attainment,  or  deep  Christian  ex- 
perience ?  No,  the  church  evidently  contemplated — it  could 
contemplate  no  other — that  the  invitation  should  embrace 
every  individual  among  her  sincere  members,  from  the  youth 
who  yesterday  completed  his  pupilage  and  was  received-into 
full  communion  with  the  church  by  "  the  laying  on  of  hands ;" 
to  the  aged  soldier  of  Christ,  the  veteran  in  her  ranks,  who 
can  exclaim,  "  I  have  fought  a  good  fight,  I  have  finished  my 
course,  I  have  kept  the  faith."  All  are  equally  invited,  en- 
joined, expected  to  be  present.  No  individual  can  absent 
himself  without  sin,  nay,  without  a  double  sin,  a  sin  of  dis- 
obedience, and  a  sin  of  ingratitude. 

In  this  respect,  there  is  not  a  shadow  of  distinction  between 
the  two  Sacraments  of  our  church,  both  are  equally  considered 
as  "  generally  necessary  to  salvation ;"  both  therefore  are 
equally  considered  as  binding,  and  equally  binding  upon  all ; 
and  it  would  be  extremely  difficult  to  show  that  the  man  who 
wilfully  absents  himself  from  the  second  Sacrament,  stands  in 
any  degree,  in  a  holier  relationship  to  God,  than  the  man  who 
voluntarily  neglects  the  first.  Yet  who  is  there  among  you 
who  would  deny  your  children  the  blessing  of  Christian  bap- 

*  Church  Catechism. 


112  DISCOURSE     VII  I. 

tism  ?  And  will  you  be  more  cruel  to  your  own  souls,  than 
you  are  to  your  own  flesh  and  blood  ?  Will  you  deny  them 
the  opportunity  of  feeding  by  faith,  upon  that  which  alone  is 
"  meat  indeed,  and  drink  indeed  ?"  Above  all,  will  you  deny 
the  Lord  of  life,  the  Saviour  who  died  for  you,  his  one  last 
request, •'  Do  this  in  remembrance  of  me."  Brethren,  is  there 
one  among  you,  who  to  these  inquiries  would  venture  to  reply, 
44 1  will?"  We  cannot  believe  that  there  is  an  individual  who 
could  thus  harden  himself  against  his  own  mercies.  As  there 
is  not  one  who  would  thus  speak,  we  pray  that  there  may 
not  be  one  who  would  thus  act  in  open  defiance  of  the  com- 
mand of  his  Redeemer.  These  considerations,  however,  we 
leave  with  yourselves,  as  long  as  we  are  compelled  to  open 
our  doors  at  the  close  of  the  sermon,  to  give  any  of  those 
committed  to  our  charge  an  opportunity  to  escape  from  a 
service  which  is  their  highest  privilege,  and  if  they  were  wise, 
would  be  their  greatest  pleasure  ;  so  long  shall  we,  God  per- 
mitting, never  cease  to  sound  in  your  ears,  the  duty,  and  the 
privilege,  you  are  neglecting. 

While  to  you,  and  we  thank  God  for  the  very  large  and 
steadily  increasing  number  of  you,  who  delight  in  every  re- 
turn of  this  holy,  and  sanctifying,  and  strengthening  ordi- 
nance, and  who  are,  we  trust,  renewed  in  the  Spirit  of  your 
minds,  and  reconciled  to  God,  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord  ; 
we  would  only  say,  let  nothing  ever  keep  you  voluntarily 
from  a  mean  of  grace,  of  which  past  experience  has  so  fully 
proved  to  you  the  excellency  and  the  power.  Let  every  re- 
turn of  it,  not  only  be  a  pledge  to  you  of  the  Saviour's  love  to 
your  souls,  but  let  it  be  also  a  pledge  to  him  of  your  increasing 
love  to  his  service.  Bear  in  mind,  however,  that  his  own 
Word  has  said,  "  Ye  cannot  drink  the  cup  of  the  Lord,  and 
the  cup  of  devils  ;"  and  although  this,  doubtless,  applied  dis- 
tinctly to  idolatry,  it  goes  far  to  prove,  that  by  coming  to  his 
table,  you  do  in  the  most  solemn  manner  avow  your  allegiance 
to  him,  and  proclaim  open,  irreconcileable  hostility  to  his 
enemies,  the  world,  the  flesh,  and  the  devil ;  that  you  by  this 


ARTICLE    XXVI1J.  113 

act  solemnly  declare  that  you  have  given  "  yourselves,  your 
souls,  and  bodies,"  to  be  his,  and  his  alone  ;  that  you  acknow- 
ledge with  the  Apostle,  that  you  are  not  your  own,  but  his 
who  has  bought  you  with  his  blood. 

Beloved,  think  how  much  is  implied  in  that  acknowledg- 
ment; what  holiness,  what  purity,  what  love,  what  self-denial, 
what  heavenly-mindedness,  what  gratitude.  And  while  the 
acknowledgment  of  this  gift  involves,  on  your  part,  such  high 
and  holy  duties,  hear  what  blessed  privileges  it  involves,  on 
his  part,  who  has  vouchsafed  to  receive  the  gift,  and  to  secure 
these  privileges  to  yourselves.  "  Holy  Father,  keep  through 
thine  own  name,  those  whom  thou  hast  given  me,  that  they 
may  be  one,  as  we  are,"  "Father,  I  will,  that  they  also 
whom  thou  hast  given  me,  be  with  me,  where  I  am,  that  they 
may  behold  my  glory."  Your  course  then  is  plain,  it  is 
through  the  alone  merits  of  your  Redeemer,  from  duties  here, 
to  joys  hereafter ;  from  the  church  militant,  to  the  church 
triumphant;  from  the  imperfect  communion  of  sinners  like 
yourselves,  to  the  perfect  communion  of  saints  in  glory ; 
from  the  table  of  your  Lord,  and  his  spiritual  presence,  upon 
earth,  to  the  bridegroom's  feast,  the  Supper  of  the  Lamb,  the 
personal  presence  of  your  Redeemer,  in  the  kingdom  of  your 
Father. 


114  DISCOURSE     IX. 


DISCOURSE   IX.* 

ON  THE  DUTY  OF  EVERY  CHRISTIAN  GOVERNMENT  TO  PROVIDE 
CHRISTIAN  INSTRUCTION,  AND  TO  MAINTAIN  CHRISTIAN 
WORSHIP. 

ISAIAH  xlix.  23. 
Kings  shall  be  thy  nursing  fathers,  and  their  queens  thy  nuising  mothers. 

AND  of  whom  spake  the  prophet  these  remarkable  words  ? 
Of  the  church  of  the  living  God.  Not  of  that  church,  in  the 
darkness,  and  helplessness  of  her  infancy,  when  confined  to 
the  chosen  nation  of  the  Jews,  but  of  that  same  church,  when, 
as  we  learn  from  the  context,  God  should  have  "  lift  up  his 
hand  to  the  GENTILES,  and  set  up  His  standard  to  the 
PEOPLE  ;"t  when  she  should  have  broken  forth  on  the  right 
hand,  and  on  the  left,  and  possessed  the  gate  of  her  enemy ; 
in  fact,  of  the  church  of  God,  under  the  Christian  dispensa- 
tion. I  have  therefore  selected  the  passage,  not  with  the 
intention  of  dwelling  upon  the  words,  but  upon  the  principle, 
the  important  principle,  developed  in  them,  viz.,  the  duty  of 
a  Christian  government,  to  become  the  nursing  father  and 
nursing  mother  of  the  church  of  the  Redeemer. 

During  such  times  as  the  present,  when  unprecedented 
efforts  are  making  for  the  furtherance  of  some  great  attempt 
to  destroy  the  union  that  has  so  long  and  so  happily  sub- 
sisted in  this  country,  between  the  church  and  state,  I  feel  it 
compulsory  upon  me,  to  depart  from  my  ordinary  subjects 
of  ministration,  to  endeavour  to  furnish  my  hearers  with  a 
few  of  those  many  arguments,  which  may  legitimately  and 
scripturally  be  urged  in  defense  of  the  church  establishment 

*  This  discourse  was  written  without  the  slightest  view  to  publication, 
and  is  now  only  appended  to  the  Discourses  on  the  Articles,  in  deference 
to  the  yish  expressed  by  many  members  of  the  congregation. 

t  Isaiah  xlix.  22. 


DISCOURSE    IX.  115 

of  our  country.  You  will  not  brethren,  hear  the  observations 
which  I  am  about  to  offer  yon,  with  the  less  attention,  if  I 
tell  you,  that  the  arguments  which  sustain  them,  will  have 
little  of  novelty  to  recommend  them,  since  I  have  preferred 
selecting  those,  which  after  carefully  considering  the  subject 
for  myself,  and  reading  what  others  have  written  upon  both 
sides  of  the  question,  appear  to  be  the  most  conclusive,  and 
the  least  assailable.  Neither  will  you  be  inclined  to  listen  to 
me,  with  less  than  your  usual  candour,  if  I  remind  you  that 
in  the  disputes  which  have  latterly  agitated,  and  are  at  present 
agitating,  in  so  violent  a  manner,  both  Dissenters  and  Church- 
men, I  have  taken  no  part.  The  subject  has  never  been, 
however  distantly,  alluded  to  from  this  place  ;  first,  because 
I  have  always  felt  that  the  plain  and  simple  topics  of  scrip- 
tural instruction  afford  sufficient,  and  far  more  than  sufficient 
occupation  for  these  brief  and  hallowed  opportunities ;  and 
that  if,  during  the  week,  the  minds  of  men  are  exercised,  as 
they  must  ever  be,  in  this  great  metropolis,  in  the  toils  of 
labour,  or  the  vicissitudes  of  trade,  or  the  anxieties  of  pro- 
fessional duties,  or  the  conflict  of  political  opinions,  the  Sab- 
bath ought  to  be  a  day  of  mental  repose,  as  well  as  of  bodily 
rest,  that  no  harassing,  no  irritating  topics,  should  ever  be 
permitted  to  interrupt  its  hallowed  hours  ;  and  that,  above  all, 
no  subject,  no  word,  no  thought  should  cross  the  mind,  while 
in  the  house  of  God,  which  does  not,  as  the  word  of  God 
expresses  it,  "make  for  peace;"  and,  secondly,  Because  my 
hearty  desire  has  always  been,  that  every  conscientious  Dis- 
senter should  be  exempted  from  ail  that  he  can  honestly,  and 
as  in  the  sight  of  Him  who  knows  the  heart,  really  consider 
a  burden;  because  I  respect  a  conscientious  Dissenter  as 
much  as  a  conscientious  Churchman  ;  and  because  in  justice 
both  to  Dissenters  and  to  Wesleyans,  I  am  bound  to  add, 
that  during  the  whole  period,  now  more  than  ten  years  of  my 
ministry  in  this  parish,  I  have  never  in  a  single  instance  met 
with  opposition,  or  contumely,  or  unkindness  from  them ; 
but,  on  the  contrary,  when  occasionally  brought  into  contact 


116  DISCOURSE     IX. 

with  them,  I  have  received  from  them  that  treatment  which' 
as  fellow-labourers  in  the  Lord's  vineyard,  we  should  expect 
from  men  earnestly  and  faithfully  engaged  in  the  same  work 
as  ourselves. 

It  is  unnecessary,  we  hope,  to  add,  that  nothing  which  shall 
be  spoken  on  the  present  occasion,  shall  be  in  any  degree  at 
variance  with  feelings  such  as  these :  that  called  upon,  as  I 
conceive  myself  to  be,  by  the  passing  events  around  us,  to 
endeavour  to  defend  the  church,  of  which  I  am  a  very  humble, 
but  attached  and  devoted  member,  I  obey  the  call,  with  the 
fullest  conviction,  that  "  the  weapons  of  our  warfare  are  not 
carnal ;"  that  unless  we  bring  to  the  task,  a  really  charitable 
feeling  towards  those  who  differ  from  us,  and  an  earnest  de- 
sire to  avoid  all  fierce,  and  angry,  and  bitter  controversy,  the 
God  whom  we  serve  will  withhold  his  blessing,  and  we  shall 
run  and  labour  in  vain.  A 

We  shall  first,  then,  endeavour  to  show  that  a  church  esta- 
blishment provided  by  the  state,  and  in  immediate  connexion 
with  it,  is  according  to  the  will  of  God,  and  the  experience  of 
antiquity  :  and,  secondly,  That  the  blessings  and  advantages 
of  a  church  so  constituted,  are  of  a  nature,  and  carried  forth 
to  an  extent,  which  no  church,  established  on  any  other  prin- 
ciples, could  hope  to  emulate. 

It  is  frequently  said,  by  those  who  are  opposed  to  the  ex- 
istence of  a  church  establishment,  that  it  is  unfair  to  derive 
any  arguments  in  favour  of  it,  from  any  thing  antecedent  to 
the  Christian  dispensation.  This  objection,  if  it  be  an  honest 
one,  and  such  we  are  willing  to  suppose  it,  must,  we  think, 
arise  from  a  very  limited  and  superficial  view  of  the  dipensa- 
tions  of  God.  For,  however  the  framework  may  have  been 
changed,  a  true  knowledge  of  those  dispensations  will  lead 
us  to  confess,  that  the  principles,  the  all-important  principles 
involved,  are  in  every  case  substantially  the  same. 

We  hesitate,  not,  then,  to  go  back  even  to  the  days  of 
Abraham,  to  prove  not  merely  the  propriety,  but  the 
bounden  duty,  the  imperious  obligation,  of  every  government, 


DISCOURSE     IX.  117 

to  provide  the  opportunities  of  religious  worship  for  its 
people. 

I  need  scarcely  remind  you  that  the  peculiar  characteristic 
of  Abraham,  which  was  selected  by  God  himself,  for  the 
marks  of  His  especial  approbation,  was  this,  "  Abraham  shall 
surely  become  a  great  and  mighty  nation,  and  all  the  nations 
of  the  earth  shall  be  blessed  in  him  ;  for,  I  know  him,  that 
he  will  command  his  children  and  his  household  after  him, 
and  they  shall  keep  the  way  of  the  Lord  to  do  justice  and 
judgment."  v 

We  find,  that,  when  Abraham  first  obeyed  the  call  of  God, 
in  coming  out  of  the  land  of  his  nativity,  accompanied  only 
by  Sarai  his  wife,  and  Lot  his  nephew,  and  the  children  of 
Lot's  family,  one  of  his  first  acts  was  to  establish  the  family 
altar,  and  as  a  family,  to  call  on  the  name  of  the  Lord.  Again, 
we  find  that  when,  as  the  inspired  writer  tells  us,  he  became 
"  very  rich  in  cattle,  in  silver,  and  in  gold ;"  when  his  trained 
servants,  born  in  his  own  house,  and  capable  of  bearing  arms, 
amounted  to  three  hundred  and  eighteen  ;  and  therefore  when 
his  whole  retinue,  including  women  and  children,  could  not 
have  been  less,  at  the  very  lowest  computation,  than  one 
thousand  souls,  that  is,  when  he  had  become  a  prince,  and  a 
potentate,  he  did  that  for  the  many  which  he  had  before  done 
for  the  few  ;  he  erected  the  altar,  and  he  commanded  his 
subjects,  as  he  had  before  commanded  his  servants,  that  they 
should  keep  the  way  of  the  Lord.  Now  can  we  for  a  moment 
suppose,  that  if  Abraham  had  counted  his  retinue  by  thou- 
sands and  by  millions,  instead  of  by  tens  and  by  hundreds ; 
in  fact,  if  he  had  become  the  head  of  some  mighty  monarchy, 
he  would  have  ceased  to  do  that  for  which  his  Lord  had  so 
graciously,  and  so  remarkably  commended  him  ?  Or,  can  we 
imagine  that  God,  who  applauded  the  act  when  confined  to 
Abraham's  family,  would  have  condemned  it  when  extended 
to  his  empire  ?  Surely  it  is  not  too  much  to  assert,  that,  if 
God  can  look  with  pleasure  upon  the  family  altar,  erected  by 
him  whom  He  has  placed  at  the  head  of  the  family,  He  must 


118 


DISCOURSE    IX. 


look  with  tenfold  pleasure  upon  the  national  altar  erected  at 
the  command,  and  maintained  by  the  authority  of  him  whom 
He  has  Himself  placed  at  the  head  of  the  nation. 

If  we  pass  on  from  Abraham  to  the  other  patriarchs,  and 
especially  to  Jacob,  we  shall  see  the  same  principle  distinctly 
recognized.  When  he  became  great,  and  God  had  blessed 
him  abundantly,  or,  in  his  own  language,  when  he  became 
"  two  bands,"*  we  find  it  recorded  of  him,  that  he  provided 
religious  opportunities  for  his  followers,  that  he  erected  the 
altar  of  God  in  the  midst  of  them,  with  the  same  regularity 
as  he  had  done  for  himself,  when  at  the  commencement  of 
his  career,  a  poor  and  houseless  wanderer,  *'  with  his  stafF't 
alone,  he  passed  over  Jordan. 

We  maintain,  then,  that  in  all  these  cases  there  was  the 
principle  established,  of  those  in  authority  providing  the  op- 
portunities of  religious  instruction  and  worship  for  the  people 
committed  to  their  charge ;  it  matters  not,  upon  how  small  a 
scale  it  was  exercised,  but  here  was  most  distinctly  the  prin- 
ciple recognized,  and  applauded  by  God,  during  the  whole 
of  the  patriarchal  dipensation  ;  for  what  has  been  proved  re- 
specting Abraham  and  Jacob,  may  be  proved  of  all  the  other 
patriarchs.  And  if  it  be  the  acknowledged  duty  of  the  father 
thus  to  provide  religious  instruction  for  his  children,  the  master 
for  his  household,  the  chief  for  his  followers,  where  will  you 
pause  in  the  series  before  you  arrive  at  the  summit — the  king 
for  his  people  ? 

You  cannot  stop  short  of  this  conclusion,  unless  you  are 
prepared  to  say,  that  though  as  a  father,  or  a  master,  you  are 
bound  b^  certain  responsibilities,  as  a  magistrate,  or  a  legisla- 
tor, you  are  absolved  from  them  :  you  cannot  stop  short,  un- 
less you  are  prepared  to  say,  that  in  all  our  natural  relations, 
we  are  bound  to  think  and  act  as  believers,  and  in  all  our 
political  relations,  we  are  bound  to  think  and  act  as  unbelievers. 

If  from  the  patriarchal,  we  turn  to  the  Mosaic  dispensation, 

*  Gen.  xxxii.  10.  t  Gen.  xxxii.  10. 


DISCOURSE    IX.  119 

we  find  tliis  principle  not  merely  recognized,  but  forming  the 
very  marrow  and  essence  of  the  whole,  and  distinctly  ap- 
pointed by  God  himself.  Indeed  the  Jewish  church  esta- 
blishes, so  unanswerably,  the  subject  in  debate,  that  the  only 
method  by  which  it  has  been  ever  attempted  to  be  met,  is,  by 
asserting  that  it  was  a  temporary  and  typical  dispensation, 
and  therefore  cannot  be  fairly  applied  to  ourselves.  Now  ac- 
knowledging, as  we  most  unfeignedly  do,  that  it  was  both  a 
temporary  and  typical  dispensation,  we  also  acknowledge  that 
all  that  was  strictly  Jewish,  and  temporary,  and  typical,  in 
the  church  establishment  of  the  Jews,  was  to  be  done  away, 
and  most  unquestionably  these  have  been  done  away  ;  but 
then  we  contend  that  its  moral  principles,  and  moral  obli- 
gations, neither  are,  nor  can  be  abrogated.  We  believe,  that 
it  is  only  by  confounding  two  things,  which  are  perfectly 
separate  and  distinct,  viz.,  the  typical,  with  the  moral  portion 
of  the  dispensation,  that  the  false  impression,  conveyed  by 
the  enemies  of  a  national  church,  can  possibly  stand. 

The  result,  then,  at  which  we  arrive,  from  this  portion  of 
the  subject  before  us,  is  the  following.  We  would  ask,  is  it 
at  all  analogous  with  God's  dealings  with  his  people,  that  a 
principle  so  clearly,  and  plainly  developed,  in  the  patriarchal, 
and  in  the  Jewish  dispensations,  as  this — that  those  in  civil 
authority  should  esteem  it  their  bounden  duty  to  provid-e  re- 
ligious instruction  and  worship  for  those  committed  to  their 
charge — should  be  utterly  unknown  in  the  Christian  dispen- 
sation ?  Is  there  any  other  principle,  common  to  the  two 
former,  which  is  excluded  from  the  third  ?  And  is  it  not,  then, 
contrary  to  all  probability  that  the  unchangeable  Jehovah 
should  depart  from  his  own  positive  arrangements,  when 
founded  not  upon  the  temporary  circumstances  of  a  peculiar 
people,  but,  as  in  this  case,  on  the  immutable  relationship 
between  God  and  man  and  between  man  and  his  fellows  ? 
If  we  pass  from  the  Old  Testament  to  the  New,  we  shall 
content  ourselves  with  this  most  powerful  negative  argument 
in  our  favour,  that  there  is  nothing  against  an  establishment 


120  DISCOURSE    IX. 

in  the  Gospels  or  Epistles  ;  and  to  those  among  you,  who 
know  best  the  method  of  instruction  in  the  New  Testament, 
this  negative  argument  will  have  great  weight.  To  enter 
fully  into  the  force  of  this,  you  must  remember,  that  it  is  not 
*  made  use  of  to  establish  any  new  regulation,  or  its  value  might 
be  questionable;  but  that  it  is  simply  brought  forward  in 
proof  of  the  fact,  that  the  Divine  arrangement,  which  we  have 
seen  pervading  all  the  history  of  the  church  of  God  previously 
to  the  Christian  dispensation,  was  to  continue  untouched,  as 
to  its  principle,  during  the  ages  which  were  to  succeed  the 
developement  of  that  dispensation.  It  is,  in  fact,  precisely 
the  same  kind  of  argument,  and  equally  strong,  as  that  by 
which  we  prove  that  the  Christian  Sabbath  is  a  Divine  insti- 
tution. Nothing  is  actually  declared  in  the  New  Testament 
respecting  the  establishment  of  religion  by  government,  or 
the  establishment  of  a  Sabbath.  Both  were  already  in  exist- 
ence :  both  had  been  established  long  before  :  it  is  enough 
that  neither  was  abrogated.  Our  Lord  found  his  hearers, 
educated  in  the  strongest  possible  prepossessions,  in  favour 
of  a  national  religion,  there  was  no  need  therefore  of  enforcing 
this  duty.  They,  in  fact,  knew  nothing  of  a  religion  sup- 
ported in  any  other  manner  than  by  the  state  ;  all,  then,  that 
appears  requisite  for  our  Lord  to  have  done  upon  this  point 
was,  to  leave  his  disciples  as  he  found  them.  And  is  not  this 
precisely  what  He  has  done  ?  Did  our  Lord  convey  a  single 
hint,  or  did  he  commission  his  disciples  who  were  to  fill  up 
his  outline,  to  convey  a  single  hint  of  a  contrary  tendency  ? 
No  ;  with  the  exception  of  one  solitary  text,  none  have  ever 
ventured  to  assert  that  he  did.  And  look  only  for  a  moment 
at  this  exception,  and  you  will  see  its  total  inapplicability  to 
the  present  question.  The  text  to  which  I  allude  is,  as  you 
are  doubtless  aware,  our  Lord's  reply  to  Pilate,  "  My  king- 
dom is  not  of  this  world."  When  and  where  was  it  made  ? 
Was  it  at  all  in  relation  to  the  church  ?  Had  it  any  reference 
to  the  establishment  of  his  religion  ?  Not  the  smallest.  It  was 
the  declaration  of  our  Lord  when  standing  at  the  bar  of  the 


DISCOURSE    IX.  121 

Roman  governor.  He  was  accused  of  forbidding  his  country- 
men to  pay  tribute  to  Caesar,  and  of  saying  that  he  was  Christ, 
a  king,  and  his  reply  is,  "  My  kingdom  is  not  of  this  world ; 
if  my  kingdom  were  of  this  world,  then  would  my  servants 
fight  that  I  should  not  be  delivered  to  the  Jews."  However 
possible,  then,  it  may  be,  by  taking  half  the  sentence,  to  make 
it  appear  to  apply  to  church  establishments,  no  unprejudiced 
man,  we  apprehend,  could  read  the  whole,  without  seeing  that 
it  applied  simply,  and  entirely,  to  the  accusation,  that  our 
Lord  was  endeavouring  to  erect  a  temporal  kingdom  in  oppo- 
sition to  the  power  of  Caesar,  and  to  establish  this  kingdom 
by  the  sword.  So  important  is  it  not  to  build  an  argument 
upon  half  a  passage  of  Scripture,  but  to  weigh  well  the  whole, 
and  to  examine  well  the  context,  before  we  venture  to  claim 
the  support  of  God's  Word.  There  is  not  indeed  a  single 
•  sentence,  from  the  beginning  of  St.  Matthew,  to  the  end  of 
Revelation,  which,  without  the  grossest  perversion  of  Scripture, 
or  the  most  palpable  neglect  of  the  context,  can  be  adduced, 
as  an  argument  against  the  interference  of  the  civil  power,  in 
the  establishing  and  maintaining  a  national  religion.  Con- 
sidering that,  as  we  have  seen,  all  our  Lord's  first  disciples 
were  nurtured  in  the  prejudices  of  a  national  religion,  is  it 
probable,  is  it  possible,  that  this  should  have  been  the  case — 
that  these  prejudices  should  have  been  left  untouched,  if  our 
Lord  had  really  been  opposed  to  them  ?  Did  he  ever  act  in  a 
similar  manner  with  regard  to  any  other  subject?  Take,  for 
instance,  the  ceremonial  law,  established  by  God  himself,  as 
undoubtedly  as  that  the  interference  of  the  civil  power  with 
religion  was  established  by  God  himself.  For  the  abolition 
of  the  former,  the  most  explicit  declarations  were  vouchsafed 
by  God  to  man  ;  for  the  abolition  of  the  latter,  not  one  word, 
as  we  have  seen,  has  ever  yet  been  communicated.  What 
then  are  we  to  believe  ?  What  must  every  unprejudiced 
mind  conclude,  when,  of  two  duties,  equally  enforced,  the 
former  is  distinctly  abrogated  by  the  same  voice  which  or- 
dained it,  and  the  latter  is  passed  over  in  silence  ?  Surely  we 

11 


122  DISCOURSE    IX. 

must  confess,  that,  the  latter  principle  remains  unaltered,  un- 
removed,  unshaken.  "  The  account  then,  of  scriptural  in- 
junction," as  an  able  writer  of  the  present  day  has  well 
expressed  it,  "  stands  thus — in  favour  of  establishments,  much ; 
against  establishments,  nothing."* 

Without  attempting  to  found  the  fundamental  principle  for 
which  we  are  contending,  upon  any  of  the  single  and  scattered 
declarations  of  the  divine  Word,  such  as  the  prophecy  of  the 
text  and  many  others,  powerful  though  they  be :  we  would 
leave  it  upon  this  simple,  broad,  and  intelligible,  and,  as  we 
believe,  irrefragable  foundation — That  the  principle  of  a  na- 
tional church  was  encouraged  by  God  himself  under  the  pa- 
triarchal dispensation,  established  by  God  himself  under  the 
Jewish  dispensation,  and  left  untouched  by  God  himself  when 
remodelling  that  sacred  establishment,  under  the  Christian 
dispensation.  That  it  is,  in  fact,  founded  on  those  moral  ob- 
ligations, from  which  no  possible  change  of  circumstances  can 
set  us  free,  and  like  the  divine  institution  of  the  Sabbath, 
though  veiled  for  awhile  under  Jewish  types  and  Jewish 
ceremonies,  has  come  down  to  us  stripped  of  these,  and  yet 
retaining  all  the  force  and  obligation,  the  beauty  and  freshness 
of  its  divine  original ;  equally  binding  upon  man  in  his  do- 
mestic character,  in  his  social  character,  in  his  political  cha- 
racter, equally  imperative  upon  him  as  a  father  with  his 
children,  as  a  master  with  his  servants,  as  a  king  with  his 
subjects  ;  and  never  to  be  disregarded,  without  infringing  the 
laws,  and  contemning  the  authority  of  God  our  Maker. 

With  regard  to  the  practice  of  antiquity,  it  is  sufficient  in  a 
single  word  to  assert,  what  no  one  can  deny,  that  with  the 
exception  of  the  first  three  hundred  years  in  the  church's 
history,  when  every  emperor  was  an  unbeliever,  or  a  perse- 
cutor, or  both,  and  therefore  when  Christianity  could  not  be 
the  religion  of  the  state,  there  never  was  a  period  when  the 
religion  of  Christ  was  not  fostered  and  protected  by  the 

*  Essay  on  the  Church,  p.  15. 


DISCOURSE     IX.  ~ 

government.*  And  that  during  the  whole,  or  the  greater 
part,  of  those  first  three  hundred  years,  miraculous  powers 
remained  in  the  church,  as  if  to  protect  its  infancy,  until  the 
first  Christian  emperor,  immediately  upon  his  conversion, 
should  establish  it  as  the  religion  of  the  country,  and  throw 
over  its  institutions,  the  shield  of  the  civil  power :  a  duty 
which  was  not  more  clearly  seen  by  Constantine,  than  it  was 
gratefully  and  unhesitatingly  accepted  by  the  whole  body  of 
the  Christian  church  ;  not  a  single  dissentient  voice  having 
ever  been  raised,  not  an  individual  Christian  foretelling,  or 
foreseeing,  that  a  day  could  arrive  when  the  connexion  be- 
tween church  and  state  should  be  called  an  unholy  union,  or 
when  good  men  of  any  persuasion  would  unite  to  dissolve  and 
to  destroy  it.  Upon  this  point,  we  will  only  add  a  single 
observation,  that  however  conscientious  Dissenters  may  at 
the  present  moment  view  this  question ;  from  the  beginning, 
even  among  themselves,  it  was  not  so;  that  in  fact  the  great- 
est, the  holiest  among  their  forefathers,  are  all  found  ranged 
on  the  side  of  an  establishment,  and  fighting  its  battles.  It  is 
sufficient  to  mention  the  names  of  Owen,  Baxter,  Flavel, 
Howe,  Henry,  and  Doddridge,  in  support  of  the  assertion ; 
and  to  show  that  they  were  not  lukewarm  friends  of  that 
cause,  of  which  many  of  their  descendants  are  the  enemies, 
we  will  quote  a  single  passage  of  that  most  eminent  non-con- 
formist, the  truly  wise  and  pious  Dr.  Owen,  who,  when 
preaching  before  the  long  parliament,  thus  expressed  himself: 
— "  Somef  think  if  you  (the  parliament)  were  well  settled, 
you  ought  not,  in  any  thing  as  rulers  of  the  nation,  to  put 
forth  your  power  for  the  interest  of  Christ ;  the  good  Lord 
keep  your  hearts  from  that  apprehension !"  "  If  once  it  comes 
to  this,  that  you  shall  say  you  have  nothing  to  do  with  re- 
ligion, as  rulers  of  the  nation,  God  will  quickly  manifest,  that 

*  See  Sermons  on  this  subject  by  the  Bishop  of  London,  and  by  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Deahry. 
t  Owen's  Works,  vol.  xiv.  p.  415.     Edit.  1826. 


124  DISCOURSE    IX. 

he  hath  nothing  to  do  with  you,  as  rulers  of  the  nation.  '*  A 
sentiment  which  we  pray  that  the  Spirit  of  God  may  keep 
constantly  before  the  eyes,  and  write  upon  the  heart  of  every 
legislator  of  a  Christian  nation,  who  expects  to  enjoy  the 
blessing  and  favour  of  the  Most  High  upon  his  efforts  for  the 
good  of  the  nation. 

II.  But  we  must  proceed  to  the  second  division  of  our 
subject,  the  peculiar  advantages  of  an  established  church. 

Of  the  blessings  and  advantages  of  a  church  establishment, 
every  individual,  whether  Churchman  or  Dissenter,  or  Infidel, 
is,  however  he  may  deny  it,  or  however  he  may  in  truth  be 
ignorant  of  it,  most  unquestionably  a  partaker.  Wherever  a 
church  is  built,  and  an  active  and  godly  minister  is  appointed, 
every  rank  and  class  in  the  adjoining  society,  and  every  in- 
dividual in  that  society,  whether  he  enter  the  church,  or 
whether  he  do  not,  is  in  some  degree  improved  and  benefited. 
To  those  who  become  partakers  of  its  ordinances,  the  benefits 
are  sufficiently  obvious.  The  higher  classes,  who,  amidst  the 
refinements  of  luxury,  or  the  allurements  of  intellectual  pride, 
might  not  be  willing  to  go  far  out  of  their  way,  to  hear  the 
self-denying  doctrines  of  the  Gospel,  are  met  by  them  at  their 
very  doors  ;  and  are  told  the  truth,  the  plain  and  life-giving 
truth,  from  God's  Word,  with  an  authority  which  nothing  but 
the  official  character  of  a  duly  appointed  minister,  of  God,  and 
we  might  also  add,  of  a  parochial  minister,  necessarily  inde- 
pendent both  of  their  smile,  and  of  their  frown,  can  compe- 
tently insure.  In  what  is  termed  the  "voluntary  system," 
the  minister  must  be  exposed  to  an  interference  from  his  con- 
gregation, from  which  the  parochial"  minister  alone  is  free. 
The  importance  of  this,  in  securing  an  unfettered  ministra- 
tion of  the  Word  of  God,  is  too  obvious  to  require  a  single 

*  Vol.  xv.  p,  499. — Perhaps  Dr.  Adam  Clarke's  well-known  testimony 
In  favour  of  church  establishments,  ought  also  to  be  referred  to.  See  his 
note  on  1  Kings  xiii.  33,  which  concludes  thus  : — "  whatever  the  reader 
ma)'  do,  the  writer  thanks  God  for  the  religious  establishment  of  his  coun- 
try. For  abuses  in  church  and  state  he  is  the  last  to  contend." 


DISCOURSE    IX.  125 

observation.  Again  the  poorer  and  less-informed  classes  are 
brought  under  the  teaching,  and  hallowing,  and  comforting 
influences  of  the  Divine  precepts  and  promises,  both  in  public 
ministration  and  private  visiting,  with  a  frequency,  I  may  al- 
most say,  a  constancy,  with  which  no  other  institution  can 
supply  them ;  and  let  me  add,  at  free  cost,  which,  except  in 
a  national  church,  is,  and  must  be,  almost  unknown.  We 
speak  it  in  no  disparagement  to  other  religious  bodies,  for  we 
love  and  revere  every  order  of  Christians,  who  "  love  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  in  sincerity  ;"  but  we  state  it  merely  as  a  fact 
which  the  very  constitution  of  their  order  requires,  that  even 
the  poor  who  attend  their  places  of  worship,  are  expected  (we 
do  not  say  compelled,  but  expected)  to  contribute,  and,  as  is 
well  known,  do,  in  the  aggregate,  contribute  largely  to  the 
maintenance  of  their  ministers.  Now  what  is  the  case  in  the 
establishment  ?  There,  and  there  alone,  can  it  be  said,  that 
"  The  poor  have  the  Gospel  preached  to  them,"  "  without 
money  and  without  price."  Look  at  the  ten  thousand  parish 
churches  scattered  over  the  face  of  the  country,  and  we  refer 
to  the  country,  because,  however  the  "  voluntary  system"  of 
dissent  may  thrive  in  the  large  and  wealthy  towns,  it  has, 
even  to  the  present  hour,  been  literally  unable  to  obtain  the 
smallest  footing  in  many  of  our  remote  villages,  from  the 
absolute  incapacity  of  their  poor  inhabitants  to  contribute  any 
thing  to  its  support — we  say  then  look  at  the  numerous  parish 
churches  scattered  over  the  face  of  the  country,  scarcely  a 
village  from  among  whose  trees  you  do  not  behold  that  beau- 
tiful and  heart-cheering  sight,  the  village  spire.  See  these 
churches,  as  many  of  you,  no  doubt,  have  rejoiced  to  see 
them,  filled  on  the  Lord's  day  with  agricultural  labourers  of 
the  poorest  description  ;  who  have  been  trained  in  the  Sunday- 
school,  instructed  privately,  as  well  as  publicly,  and  prepared 
carefully  by  their  resident  minister,  for  confirmation  and  for 
the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper ;  and  who,  during  their 
whole  lives,  remain  under  his  plain,  and  affectionate  instruc- 
tion, seated  on  the  same  benches  on  which  their  fathers,  and 


126  DISCOURSE     IX. 

their  grandfathers  have  sat,  and  heard  the  word  of  life ;  and 
yet,  with  the  exception  of  the  trifling  fees  for  the  occasional 
offices  of  the  church,  which  occur  but  rarely,  in  the  life  of 
aay  individual,  not  one  farthing  have  the  occupants  of  those 
benches,  from  generation  to  generation,  ever  contributed,  or 
been  expected  to  contribute,  towards  the  maintenance  of  the 
church,  or  the  support  of  the  minister.  What  but  a  national 
establishment  could  ever  have  the  power,  however  it  might 
possess  the  will,  to  make  such  an  abundant  provision  upon 
such  easy  terms  ? 

We  have  said  that  those  without,  as  well  as  those  within 
the  pale,  are  benefited  by  our  church  establishment.  Observe 
only  the  effect  of  a  single  church  thus  planted  in  the  midst 
of  a  moral  and  a  spiritual  wilderness,  and  surely  you  will  not 
doubt  it.  Take,  for  instance,  any  of  those  churches  which 
have  been  lately  built  at  the  sole  charge  of  the  nation,  and 
which,  although  situated  in  the  midst  of  a  dense,  and  ignorant 
population,  would  seldom,  we  may  confidently  assert,  have 
been  erected,  had  they  waited  for  the  expression  of  their  ne- 
cessity, from  those  who  stood  the  most  in  need  of  them.  For, 
as  has  been  unanswerably  demonstrated,*  religious  instruction 
is  the  great  exception  to  that  general  rule  which  regulates  the 
supply  by  the  demand.  In  other  cases  it  may  be  true ;  in 
religion  it  is  unquestionably  false  ;  there  is  no  demand  until 
long  after  the  supply  has  been  brought :  there  is  no  feeling 
of  our  need,  until  that  feeling  has  been  originated  by  the  bless- 
ing of  God  upon  those  very  means  by  which  it  is  afterwards 
to  be  supplied.  Take  then,  we  say,  for  instance,  any  one  of 
the  churches  lately  built  by  government,  and  look  only  at 
the  effect  produced  upon  those  who  never  enter  it  upon  "  them 
that  are  without."t  Do  they  derive  nothing  from  its  charities, 
nothing  from  its  influence,  nothing  of  increased  security  to 
their  properties  and  their  persons,  from  a  more  scripturally 
enlightened,  and  therefore  a  belter  conducted  population 

*  By  Dr.  Chalmers.  t  Col.  iv.  5. 


DISCOURSE    IX.  127 

growing  up  around  them?  Nothing  of  improvement  among 
their  dependents,  from  the  spread  of  that  moral  influence,  or 
that  intellectual  cultivation  which  thrives  under  its  widely- 
spreading  branches  ?  Surely,  taking  it,  and  I  have  intention- 
ally so  taken  it,  upon  the  lowest  grounds  that  the  merest 
\vorldling  could  desire,  it  is  impossible  not  to  concede  the  fact, 
that  every  parish  church,  i.  e.,  every  church  which  insures  the 
Sunday  and  the  week-day  ministrations,  of  an  appointed 
minister,  to  an  appointed  people,  is  a  blessing,  a  peculiar 
blessing,  both  to  those  who  are  brought  into  immediate 
contact  with  its  ordinances,  and  to  those  who  dwell  in  its 
vicinity. 

In  conclusion,  we  would  only  add,  that  if  our  church  esta- 
blishment be  thus,  as  we  believe  it  is,  a  blessing  to  all, 
whether  they  are  indifferent  to  it,  or  dissent  from  it,  or  are 
opposed  to  it,  of  how  much  greater  blessing  is  it,  under  God, 
to  those  who  are  "  the  lively  members"  of  its  blessed  insti- 
tutions, who  partake  of  its  scriptural  services,  and  who  profit 
by  its  imperfect,  but  scriptural,  and  faithful  ministrations. 

Brethren,  if  you  really  love  the  great  and  glorified  Head 
of  the  church,  you  will  love  the  church  which  He  has  pur- 
chased with  his  blood  ;  and  as  one  of  the  purest,  and  most 
efficient  branches  of  it,  you  will  love,  and  venerate,  and  un- 
ceasingly pray  for  the  established  church  of  your  native 
country.  You  will  draw  the  closer  to  her  in  this,  which,  if 
dark  clouds  foretell  the  tempest,  may  soon  be  her  hour  of 
need.  You  will  uphold  her  religious  institutions,  you  will 
maintain  her  union  with  the  state,  you  will  stand  by  her  most 
scriptural  characteristics,  her  apostolical  episcopacy,  and  her 
episcopally  ordained  ministry — you  will  support  her  best,  her 
truest,  her  spiritual  interests.  You  will  love  her  too  well  to 
cling  to  her  abuses,  which  it  is  the  mark  of  a  true  affection 
to  be  the  first  to  deplore,  and,  as  far  as  in  you  lies,  the  first 
to  remedy.  You  will,  therefore,  stand  as  far  aloof  from  those 
who  would  alter,  and  improve  nothing,  as  from  those  who 
would  rush  in,  with  bold  and  desperate  foot,  "  where  angels 


128  DISCOURSE    IX. 

fear  to  tread."  You  will  love,  her,  not  as  a  mere  political 
engine,  but  as  the  handmaid  of  the  Lord,  because  sne  has  for 
centuries  honoured  him,  whom  it  is  the  dearest  desire  of 
your  heart  to  honour;  finally  you  will  love  her,  because, 
within  her  walls,  you  have  first  learnt  "  the  way  to  Zion  ;" 
because,  from  her  pulpits,  you  have  found  guidance,  and  in- 
struction, and  encouragement,  and  peace.  She  has  been  your 
spiritual  parent,  nurse,  and  counsellor ;  and  you  will  in  re- 
turn, be  her  faithful  children,  her  uncompromising  supporters, 
her  enlightened,  and  prayerful,  and  steady  friends.  You  will 
say  of  her,  the  church  of  God,  as  David  said  of  old  of  the 
city  of  God,  "  If  I  forget  thee,  O  Jerusalem,  let  my  right  hand 
forget  her  cunning.  If  I  do  not  remember  thee,"*  in  thy 
trouble  to  help  thee,  in  thy  dangers  to  assist  thee,  in  thy  dif- 
ficulties to  pray  for  thee,  "let  my  tongue  cleave  to  the  roof 
of  my  mouth  ;  yea,  if  I  prefer  not  Jerusalem  above  my  chief 
joy."t  And  you  will,  if  you  are  the  true,  and  consistent 
members  of  such  a  church,  pass  from  the  worship  of  her 
courts  below  to  that  blessed  place,  of  which  the  Apostle  de- 
clared, "I  saw  no  temple  there,  for  God  Almighty,  and  the 
Lamb,  are  the  temple  of  it:  And  the  city  had  no  need  of 
the  sun,  neither  of  the  moon  to  shine  in  it,  for  the  glory  of 
God  did  lighten  it,  and  the  Lamb  is  the  light  thereof. "J 

*  Psalm  cxxxvii.  5.       t  Psalm,  cxxxvii.  6.       t  Rev.  xxi.  22,  23. 


THE    END. 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW 


AN  INITIAL  FINE  OP  25  CENTS 

WILL  BE  ASSESSED  FOR  FAILURE  TO  RETURN 
THIS  BOOK  ON  THE  DATE  DUE.  THE  PENALTY 
WILL  INCREASE  TO  SO  CENTS  ON  THE  FOURTH 
DAY  AND  TO  $1.OO  ON  THE  SEVENTH  DAY 
OVERDUE. 


APR  27  1938 

-,•"  £5TRC 

•ujiajf&O 

2oW 

t»    •  -.     .  -                " 

•>£:.€„ 

NOV  i  g  mo 

LD  21-95w-7,'37 

VC152688 


•18 


*  '    ;^V^VM^^^-^\^jM 


mmmM. 


iltiti 


n  m^w^mimmmW 


